Informix Error -1267: The result of a datetime computation is out of range.

Reasons / Common Causes

-1267 fires when a DATETIME computation produces a value that can't be stored — per the official guidance, common scenarios include adding a large INTERVAL to a DATETIME value, or the resulting date simply not existing (the official guidance's own example: February 29 in a non-leap year).

1. Adding a large INTERVAL to a DATETIME value, per the official guidance's named scenario, pushing the result out of the valid range.
2. A computation landing on a date that doesn't exist, per the official guidance's specific example — February 29 in a non-leap year.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Review the expressions in the statement, per the official guidance.
2. Modify the sequence of operations to prevent the overflow, per the official guidance — reordering or validating intermediate results can avoid landing on an invalid date.

Examples

Landing on a nonexistent date

SELECT DATETIME(2000-02-29) YEAR TO DAY + INTERVAL(1) YEAR TO YEAR FROM orders WHERE order_id = 1;
-- -1267: adding 1 year to Feb 29, 2000 (a leap year) would land on
-- Feb 29, 2001 — but 2001 is not a leap year, so that date doesn't exist

Diagnostic Checks

1. Trace the computation step by step to identify which intermediate or final result lands outside the valid range or on a nonexistent date.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -1265 — "Overflow occurred on a datetime or interval operation." A related DATETIME arithmetic error, about an internal DECIMAL overflow rather than the resulting date being invalid.
• -1266 — "Intervals or Datetimes are incompatible for the operation." A related DATETIME/INTERVAL arithmetic error, about an unsupported operand combination.

The computation produced an out-of-range or nonexistent date — review and reorder the operations involved.