Informix Error -357

Reasons / Common Causes

-357 fires when a view's underlying table was altered in a way that broke the view's definition — specifically, a column the view's SELECT referenced was renamed or removed. Informix doesn't automatically update or invalidate-and-warn on views when their base tables change; the view simply becomes unusable until it's fixed.

1. ALTER TABLE ... DROP removing a column that a view's defining query references.
2. RENAME COLUMN on a column that a view's defining query references by its old name.
3. A schema migration that changed the base table without checking for dependent views first.
4. Multiple views layered on top of each other (a view built on another view), where the root table change cascades into breaking several dependent objects at once.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Drop and recreate the view based on the table's current schema, per the official guidance — there's no in-place repair for a broken view definition.
2. Before altering a base table, check for dependent views referencing the columns being changed, so the recreation can happen proactively rather than being discovered via this error later.
3. For a chain of dependent views, recreate them in dependency order (innermost/base-most view first) after the underlying table change.

Examples

Recreating a view after a column rename

RENAME COLUMN orders.status TO order_status;
-- an existing view referencing orders.status is now broken

DROP VIEW pending_orders_view;
CREATE VIEW pending_orders_view AS
    SELECT order_id, customer_id, order_status
    FROM orders WHERE order_status = 'pending';

Checking for dependent views before altering a table

SELECT t.tabname FROM systables t, sysviews v
WHERE t.tabid = v.tabid AND v.viewtext LIKE '%orders%';
-- review before running an ALTER TABLE that touches referenced
-- columns on orders

Diagnostic Checks

1. Identify which column change on the base table broke the view by comparing the view's defining query against the table's current column list.
2. Check for other views built on top of the broken view, which will need recreation too once the root view is fixed.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -352 — "Column column-name not found." The underlying condition that often triggers this error — a view's query now references a column that no longer exists.
• -322 — "Cannot Alter view, Rename view or Create a trigger on a view." A related view restriction — reinforces why "drop and recreate" is the standard fix pattern for views in general, not just for this error.

Drop and recreate the view against the table's current schema — Informix doesn't offer an in-place repair, and checking for dependent views before altering a base table avoids this entirely.