Informix Error -1203: Values used in a MATCH must both be type CHARACTER.

Cause and resolution

Values used in a MATCH must both be type CHARACTER.

The MATCHES relationship applies only to character data; both of its operands must be CHAR or VARCHAR columns or variables, or literal character strings. If you need to apply a regular-expression pattern match to a numeric value, you can do so in 4GL. Assign the numeric value to a CHAR variable, and test that variable.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-1203 fires when the MATCHES operator is used with an operand that isn't CHAR/VARCHAR — per the official guidance, both operands must be character types.

A non-character operand (numeric, date, etc.) passed to MATCHES, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

Convert the non-character value to CHAR before testing it with MATCHES, per the official guidance, if pattern matching against it is genuinely needed.

Examples

A numeric value used with MATCHES

SELECT * FROM orders WHERE order_id MATCHES '4*';
-- -1203: order_id is INTEGER, not CHARACTER

Corrected — convert first

SELECT * FROM orders WHERE order_id::CHAR(10) MATCHES '4*';

Diagnostic Checks

Check the data type of both operands in the MATCHES expression, and convert any non-character operand explicitly.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -1203 in this set yet.

MATCHES requires both operands to be CHAR/VARCHAR — convert a non-character value first.