Informix Error -4162: Values cannot be RETURNed from within reports.

Reasons / Common Causes

-4162 fires when a report includes a RETURN statement — per the official guidance, a RETURN inside a report would return control to the routine that invoked the report, which isn't supported.

1. A RETURN statement inside a report's body, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Remove the RETURN statement from the report.

Examples

A RETURN inside a report

REPORT order_report(rec)
  DEFINE rec RECORD LIKE orders.*
  OUTPUT
    ...
  FORMAT
    ON EVERY ROW
      PRINT rec.order_id
      RETURN
      -- -4162: RETURN is not allowed inside a report
  END FORMAT
END REPORT

Corrected

REPORT order_report(rec)
  ...
  FORMAT
    ON EVERY ROW
      PRINT rec.order_id
  END FORMAT
END REPORT

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check every report's body for a RETURN statement, and remove it.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -4121 — "Reports cannot be invoked through the CALL statement or in function call expressions." A related report-usage restriction, about how a report is invoked rather than what statements can appear inside it.

A report includes a RETURN statement, which isn't allowed — remove it.