Informix Error -4067

-4067 This RETURN statement must provide a value.

This RETURN statement does not specify a value to return, but the function was declared with a RETURNING clause that specified other than VOID. If you want to terminate a function early without producing a value, you could put a label on the END FUNCTION statement and use a GOTO, or redesign the function logic to avoid the need for an early exit.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4067 fires when a RETURN statement provides no value, but the enclosing function was declared with a RETURNING clause specifying something other than VOID — per the official guidance, a value is required in this case.

A bare RETURN statement in a function declared to return a non-VOID value, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

Provide a value in the RETURN statement, matching the function's declared return type.
If an early exit without a value is genuinely needed, put a label on END FUNCTION and use GOTO, or redesign the function's logic to avoid the early exit, per the official guidance.

Examples

A valueless RETURN in a non-VOID function

FUNCTION compute() RETURNING INTEGER
  IF condition THEN
    RETURN
    -- -4067: compute() must return an INTEGER
  END IF
  RETURN 0
END FUNCTION

Corrected

FUNCTION compute() RETURNING INTEGER
  IF condition THEN
    RETURN -1
  END IF
  RETURN 0
END FUNCTION

Diagnostic Checks

Check every RETURN statement in a non-VOID function, and confirm each one provides a value.

Related Errors / Related Topics

-4063 — "Function "name" should not return any results." The mirror-image error, about a VOID function being called as if it returned a value, rather than a non-VOID function's RETURN missing one.

A RETURN statement in a non-VOID function is missing its value — provide one, or restructure to avoid the early exit.