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Informix Error -4082: Operands of MATCH and LIKE operations must be of CHAR or VARCHAR type.

Cause and resolution

Operands of MATCH and LIKE operations must be of CHAR or VARCHAR type.

This statement uses the MATCH or LIKE operator with an argument expression that is numeric or binary. No automatic conversion of data types exists in this case. Examine the expression. If it is written as you intended, revise it to assign the values to character variables (thus forcing their conversion to character) before you use them with MATCH or LIKE.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4082 fires when MATCH or LIKE is used with a numeric or binary argument expression — per the official guidance, no automatic type conversion happens in this case.

  1. A numeric or binary expression used as an operand of MATCH/LIKE, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Examine the expression, per the official guidance.
  2. If it's as intended, assign the values to character variables first (forcing conversion to character) before using them with MATCH/LIKE, per the official guidance.
Examples
A numeric operand with LIKE
DEFINE qty INTEGER
IF qty LIKE "1%" THEN
  -- -4082: qty is INTEGER, not CHAR/VARCHAR
END IF
Corrected
DEFINE qty_str CHAR(10)
LET qty_str = qty
IF qty_str LIKE "1%" THEN
  ...
END IF
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check every MATCH/LIKE operand's data type, and convert to a character variable first if it's numeric or binary.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -4075 — "Simple string expressions must have type CHAR or VARCHAR." A related string-type requirement, about simple string expressions generally rather than MATCH/LIKE operands specifically.

A MATCH/LIKE operand is numeric or binary — assign it to a CHAR/VARCHAR variable first.