Oninit
Talk to an expert →

Informix Error -16302: An illegal character has been found in the command.

Cause and resolution

An illegal character has been found in the command.

Characters in Debugger commands are restricted to letters, numbers, blanks, underscores, and the special characters that are listed in the section "Conventions for Command Syntax Notation" in the Debugger manual. You might have pressed a key inadvertently, or you might have introduced illegal characters when you edited a file that provided input to a READ command. If you create or modify a .4db file with a word-processing program, be sure to save it in nondocument or text-only mode.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-16302 fires when a Debugger command contains a character outside the allowed set (letters, numbers, blanks, underscores, and the documented special characters) — per the official guidance.

  1. An inadvertent keypress, per the official guidance — the first named cause.
  2. Illegal characters introduced while editing a .4db file that feeds a READ command, per the official guidance — especially from saving it in a word processor's document mode rather than plain text.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Re-enter the command, avoiding disallowed characters, per the official guidance.
  2. If editing a .4db file, save it in nondocument/text-only mode, per the official guidance.
Examples
N/A

No specific triggering statement is documented beyond an illegal character in the input.

Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check the command or .4db file for stray/non-printable characters, and confirm any file was saved as plain text.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -16301 — "A syntax error has occurred." The general command-syntax error this is a specific case of, for disallowed characters specifically.

A Debugger command contains a character outside the allowed set — re-enter it, or re-save any .4db file as plain text.