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Informix Error -1123

-1123 No help file specified.

This INPUT, PROMPT, or MENU statement contains a HELP help-number clause; however, no message file has been established. The OPTIONS HELP FILE statement establishes the message file, but none has yet been executed. Review the program logic, and modify it to execute an OPTIONS statement with a HELP FILE clause before it is needed.

For 4GL programs, -1343 replaces this error.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-1123 fires when an INPUT, PROMPT, or MENU statement's HELP help-number clause is reached, but no OPTIONS HELP FILE statement has yet been executed to establish which message file to use — per the official guidance, -1343 is the equivalent error for 4GL programs specifically.

  1. A HELP clause reached before any OPTIONS HELP FILE statement has executed, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
  2. Program logic ordering issue — the OPTIONS HELP FILE statement exists somewhere in the program, but not on the code path actually taken before the HELP clause is reached.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Execute an OPTIONS statement with a HELP FILE clause before it's needed, per the official guidance — review the program logic and add it earlier in the relevant code path.
Examples
A HELP clause reached without OPTIONS HELP FILE
INPUT BY NAME order_id
  HELP 100
END INPUT
-- -1123: no OPTIONS HELP FILE statement has executed yet
Corrected
OPTIONS HELP FILE "order_help"
INPUT BY NAME order_id
  HELP 100
END INPUT
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Trace the code path leading to the HELP clause, and confirm an OPTIONS HELP FILE statement executes on that path before it.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -1120 — "Message file not found." A related help-message error, once OPTIONS HELP FILE has been executed but the named file can't be located.
  • -1343 — The 4GL-program equivalent of this same missing-OPTIONS HELP FILE condition.

No OPTIONS HELP FILE statement executed before a HELP clause needed it — add the statement earlier in the program's code path (see -1343 for the 4GL-program equivalent).