Oninit
Talk to an expert →

Informix Error -313

-313 Not owner of table.

This statement tries to do something, such as dropping a table, that only the owner of the table or a user who has Database Administrator privileges can do. Check that the statement names the table you intended. If it does, you will have to get its owner or a DBA to execute this statement. To find out who to contact, you can query the system catalog as follows:

SELECT tabname, owner FROM systables WHERE tabid > 99; SELECT username FROM sysusers WHERE usertype = 'D'

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-313 fires when an operation that requires table ownership (or DBA privileges) — most commonly DROP TABLE or ALTER TABLE — is attempted by a user who is neither the table's owner nor a database administrator.

  1. Attempting DROP TABLE/ALTER TABLE (or a similarly ownership-gated operation) as a non-owner, non-DBA user — the direct cause.
  2. A table created by a different application/service account than the one currently attempting to modify it — common when multiple accounts share a database.
  3. Assuming a granted privilege (like SELECT/INSERT) is sufficient for structural operations like dropping or altering a table, when those specifically require ownership or DBA rights.
  4. A misspelled table name that happens to resolve to a same-named table owned by a different user (relevant in ANSI-compliant databases where per-user tables of the same name can coexist).
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Verify the table name is correct first, per the official guidance — in ANSI-compliant databases, a same-named table can exist under a different owner.
  2. Identify the table's actual owner:
    SELECT tabname, owner FROM systables WHERE tabname = 'orders';
  3. Contact the table owner or a DBA to execute the statement, or have them grant the necessary structural privilege if the operation should be repeatable by the current user.
  4. Identify current database administrators if the owner is unavailable:
    SELECT username FROM sysusers WHERE usertype = 'D';
Examples
Attempting to drop a table owned by someone else
DROP TABLE orders;
-- -313: the current user isn't the owner of orders and isn't a DBA

Fix — find the actual owner first, then have them run it (or a DBA):

SELECT tabname, owner FROM systables WHERE tabname = 'orders';
-- ask the owner (or a DBA) to run the DROP TABLE
Checking for DBA users when the owner is unavailable
SELECT username FROM sysusers WHERE usertype = 'D';
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Confirm the exact table name and its owner via systables.
  2. Confirm the current session's username matches the table's owner, or that the session has DBA privileges.
  3. In an ANSI-compliant database, check whether a same-named table exists under a different owner — this can look like the "same" table but actually isn't.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -302 — "No GRANT option or illegal option on multi-table view." Another ownership/privilege-gated operation in the same general access-control family.

Only the table's owner or a DBA can perform structural operations like DROP TABLE/ALTER TABLE — an ordinary data privilege like SELECT or INSERT isn't sufficient.