Informix Error -1374: SQL character truncation or transaction warning.

Reasons / Common Causes

-1374 fires when a program has WHENEVER WARNING STOP set and a warning condition arises — per the official guidance, on a DATABASE statement the warning means the just-opened database uses a transaction log; on any other statement, it means a character value from the database had to be truncated to fit its destination.

1. The just-opened database using a transaction log, per the official guidance's specific DATABASE-statement case — a warning, not necessarily a problem, but one WHENEVER WARNING STOP treats as an error.
2. A character value truncated to fit its destination variable, per the official guidance's general case for other statements.

Solutions / Resolution

1. If triggered by DATABASE, confirm whether transaction logging is expected for that database, and adjust WHENEVER WARNING handling if it's not actually a problem.
2. If triggered by another statement, check the destination variable's size against the actual character value's length, and widen it if truncation is unacceptable.

Examples

Distinguishing the two cases

WHENEVER WARNING STOP
DATABASE stores7
-- -1374 here means: stores7 uses a transaction log

SELECT long_notes INTO v_short_notes FROM orders WHERE order_id = 1;
-- -1374 here (a different statement) means: long_notes was truncated to fit v_short_notes

Diagnostic Checks

1. Identify which statement triggered the warning — a DATABASE statement means transaction logging; any other statement means character truncation.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -1375 — "SQL NULL value in aggregate or mode ANSI database warning." A related WHENEVER WARNING STOP warning, sharing the same DATABASE-statement-vs.-other-statement interpretation split.

Depends on which statement triggered it — DATABASE means transaction logging; any other statement means character truncation.