Informix Error -719

Reasons / Common Causes

-719 fires when a FOR/FOREACH loop's variable is declared GLOBAL — per the official guidance, a global variable can't serve as a loop variable; loop variables must be local.

1. A global variable used directly as a FOR/FOREACH loop variable — the direct, only cause.
2. A variable declared GLOBAL for use elsewhere in the application, then reused as a loop variable in a routine, without realizing the two roles are incompatible.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Redefine the variable to be local to the loop, per the official guidance's documented correction, if it doesn't genuinely need to be global.
2. Or use a different (local) variable as the loop variable, per the official guidance, keeping the global variable for whatever purpose actually required it to be global.

Examples

The disallowed attempt

DEFINE GLOBAL i INT DEFAULT 0;
FOR i = 1 TO 10
  ...
END FOR;
-- -719: i is declared GLOBAL

Corrected — a local loop variable

DEFINE i INT;
FOR i = 1 TO 10
  ...
END FOR;

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check whether the FOR/FOREACH loop's variable was declared with GLOBAL, and switch to a local variable if so.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -660 — "Loop variable variable-name cannot be modified." A related FOR-loop restriction, about modifying the loop variable inside the loop rather than its declaration scope.
• -662 — "Loop variable variable-name specified more than once." A related loop-variable restriction, about reusing a name in a FOREACH clause.
• -658 — "Variables declared as GLOBAL require a default value." A related global-variable declaration rule, unrelated to loop-variable eligibility but part of the same GLOBAL declaration family.

Loop variables must be local — redeclare without GLOBAL, or use a separate local variable for the loop.