Informix Error -4432: An element in a GROUP clause must be a member of the ORDER BY clause.

Cause and resolution

An element in a GROUP clause must be a member of the ORDER BY clause.

In order to perform grouping, the set of selected rows must be ordered on the same columns. This is the only way to force all the equal values to be found together, as a group. Rewrite the statement so that each selected value that you want to group also appears in an ORDER BY clause. Note that both these clauses allow you to refer to selected values by their position number, as in the following example:

SELECT customer_num, month(order_date), avg(ship_weight) FROM orders ORDER BY 1, 2 GROUP BY 1,2

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4432 fires when a GROUP BY element isn't also part of the ORDER BY clause — per the official guidance, grouping requires the selected rows to be ordered on the same columns, so equal values can be found together as a group.

A GROUP BY element missing from the ORDER BY clause, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

Rewrite the statement so every value you want to group also appears in ORDER BY, per the official guidance — both clauses accept position numbers.

Examples

Grouping and ordering by position

SELECT customer_num, month(order_date), avg(ship_weight) FROM orders
  ORDER BY 1, 2 GROUP BY 1, 2;

Diagnostic Checks

Check every GROUP BY element for a matching ORDER BY entry, and add any that are missing.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -4432 in this set yet.

A GROUP BY element is missing from ORDER BY — add it to both clauses, using position numbers if convenient.