Informix Error -4043: Illegal EXTERNAL declaration.

Cause and resolution

Illegal EXTERNAL declaration.

This statement tries to declare an EXTERNAL classname::membername. A program cannot use a global EXTERNAL declaration to declare a shared member variable. To accomplish this, include the class description of which it is a SHARED member.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4043 fires when a program tries to declare EXTERNAL classname::membername — per the official guidance, a global EXTERNAL declaration can't be used to declare a shared member variable this way.

An EXTERNAL classname::membername declaration, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

Include the class description of which the variable is a SHARED member, per the official guidance, instead of using a global EXTERNAL declaration.

Examples

An illegal EXTERNAL declaration

EXTERNAL Order::nextId
-- -4043: SHARED members are not declared via global EXTERNAL

Corrected

INCLUDE "order_class.4gl"
-- Order::nextId is accessed directly once the class is included

Diagnostic Checks

Check for any EXTERNAL classname::membername declaration, and replace it with an INCLUDE of the class's own description.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -4043 in this set yet.

A SHARED class member was declared via global EXTERNAL — include the class description instead.