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Informix Error -228: UPDATE or INSERT on ROWID prohibited.

Cause and resolution

UPDATE or INSERT on ROWID prohibited.

This statement names the column ROWID in the list of columns for insertion or update. The row ID is an intrinsic property that cannot be modified. You can select it in a SELECT statement and compare it in a WHERE clause, but you cannot modify its contents.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-228 is the DML-side sibling of -227: ROWID is an intrinsic, system-maintained property that can be selected and compared, but never written to — not through DDL (-227), and not through INSERT or UPDATE either.

  1. ROWID named in the column list of an INSERT statement — attempting to explicitly provide a value for it.
  2. ROWID named as a target column in an UPDATE statement's SET clause — attempting to change its value on an existing row.
  3. Generic or auto-generated DML (an ORM, a data-migration script) iterating over "all columns" including ROWID and attempting to include it in an insert or update, the same pattern -227 describes for DDL tooling.
  4. Porting code from another system that has a different, writable notion of a similar pseudo-column.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Don't include ROWID in an INSERT column list or an UPDATE SET clause. There's no workaround — it can't be written to under any circumstances.
  2. For generic or auto-generated DML, exclude ROWID from column lists built by iterating over "all columns," the same fix as -227 for DDL tooling.
  3. Continue using ROWID normally in SELECT and WHERE clauses — only writing to it is restricted.
Examples
The disallowed operation
UPDATE customer SET ROWID = 999 WHERE customer_id = 1;
-- -228: ROWID can't be modified

INSERT INTO customer (ROWID, name) VALUES (999, 'Jane Doe');
-- -228: ROWID can't be explicitly assigned
Correct usage
SELECT ROWID, name FROM customer WHERE ROWID = 12345;
-- valid — reading and comparing ROWID is fine
Generic DML tooling mistakenly including ROWID
-- A data-migration script builds an INSERT from every column the
-- catalog reports for a table, including ROWID
columns = get_all_columns(table)
insert_sql = build_insert(table, columns)
-- fails with -228 if ROWID wasn't excluded
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Review the INSERT/UPDATE statement to confirm ROWID is the column being targeted.
  2. Check generic or auto-generated DML logic for whether it's iterating over "all columns" including ROWID without excluding it.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -227 — "DDL operations on ROWID prohibited." The direct sibling — the same restriction, for schema changes instead of data changes.
  • -205 — "The statement failed because you cannot use ROWID for views with union, intersect, minus, aggregates, group by, multiple tables, or derived tables." Another ROWID restriction in the same general family.

Exclude ROWID from any generic "apply this to every column" logic in DML, exactly as with DDL under -227 — it's read-only, always.