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Informix Error -2800: The first line of the specification must be the keyword database followed by the database name, or the FORMONLY keyword (4GL only). An optional WITHOUT NULL INPUT may also follow.

Cause and resolution

The first line of the specification must be the keyword database followed by the database name, or the FORMONLY keyword (4GL only). An optional WITHOUT NULL INPUT may also follow.

Aside from comment lines, a form specification must begin by naming a database. Review the file for punctuation and spelling errors. Refer to the reference manual for this product for the options that are allowed in the DATABASE statement. (Current products do not use this message. You might encounter it with Version 4.0 or earlier products.)

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-2800 fires when a form specification's first line doesn't correctly declare its database — per the official guidance, the first line must be DATABASE followed by a database name, or FORMONLY (4GL only), optionally followed by WITHOUT NULL INPUT; this message is associated with Version 4.0 or earlier products.

  1. The first line missing the DATABASE/FORMONLY keyword entirely, per the official guidance — the direct, common cause.
  2. A punctuation or spelling mistake in the DATABASE statement, per the official guidance's own suggested check.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Verify punctuation and spelling in the DATABASE statement, per the official guidance.
  2. Consult product documentation for permitted options, per the official guidance, for the exact accepted forms.
Examples
A correctly formed first line
DATABASE stores7
Or, for a 4GL form with no database binding
FORMONLY
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check the form specification's very first line for the correct DATABASE database-name/FORMONLY syntax, with WITHOUT NULL INPUT only if actually intended.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -2810 — "The name name is not an existing database name." A related DATABASE-statement error, about the named database not existing rather than the statement's own syntax being wrong.

The form specification's first line doesn't correctly declare DATABASE/FORMONLY — check syntax against the documented forms.