Informix Error -4042: This form of declaration can only appear in the global (module) scope.

Reasons / Common Causes

-4042 fires when an identifier::identifier declaration appears outside the global (module) scope — per the official guidance, this form of declaration can only appear at the global level.

1. An identifier::identifier declaration placed inside a function or other non-global scope, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Move the declaration to the global (module) scope.

Examples

A scoped declaration in the wrong place

FUNCTION process()
  DEFINE Order::total DECIMAL
  -- -4042: this form must be at module scope
END FUNCTION

Corrected

DEFINE Order::total DECIMAL

FUNCTION process()
  ...
END FUNCTION

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check where every identifier::identifier declaration appears, and move any found inside a function to the module's global scope.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -4042 in this set yet.

An identifier::identifier declaration appears outside the global scope — move it to module level.