Informix Error -4144: A grammatical error has been found in an INCLUDEd file. The construct is not understandable in its context.

Reasons / Common Causes

-4144 is a general parse-failure message for a statement inside an INCLUDEd file — per the official guidance, this often traces back to a missing END IF or other missing punctuation or END statement somewhere earlier in the source.

1. A syntax mistake somewhere in the INCLUDEd file, per the official guidance — often a missing END IF or other missing END statement.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Start at the point the error was issued and work backward, per the official guidance, looking for other error messages, missing punctuation, and missing END statements.
2. If the cause isn't obvious, focus on eliminating any other more specific error messages first, per the official guidance — this one often disappears once those are fixed.

Examples

A missing END IF causing a downstream parse failure

IF status = "New" THEN
  CALL initialize()
-- missing END IF here causes a later construct to be unparseable

Corrected

IF status = "New" THEN
  CALL initialize()
END IF

Diagnostic Checks

1. Work backward from the reported error location, checking for missing END statements and punctuation, and fix any other specific errors first.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -4010 — "Include file "pathname" is not found." A related INCLUDE-mechanism error, about the file itself not being found rather than a grammatical error within it.

A grammatical error appears in an INCLUDEd file — work backward looking for a missing END statement or other punctuation issue.