Informix Error -4313: The NEED statement cannot be used within report headers or trailers.

Cause and resolution

The NEED statement cannot be used within report headers or trailers.

The NEED n LINES statement is used in a a report to cause a conditional page skip. In the context of a FIRST PAGE HEADER, PAGE HEADER, and PAGE TRAILER section, however, it is irrelevant. If it did cause a page skip, an endless loop could ensue.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4313 fires when NEED n LINES appears inside a FIRST PAGE HEADER, PAGE HEADER, or PAGE TRAILER section — per the official guidance, NEED's conditional page skip is irrelevant there, and if it did trigger a page skip, an endless loop could result.

A NEED n LINES statement inside a header/trailer section, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

Remove the NEED statement from the header/trailer section.

Examples

NEED inside a page trailer

PAGE TRAILER
  NEED 3 LINES
  -- -4313: NEED could trigger an endless loop here
  PRINT "End of page"

Corrected

PAGE TRAILER
  PRINT "End of page"

Diagnostic Checks

Check every header/trailer section for a NEED statement, and remove it.

Related Errors / Related Topics

-4312 — "The NEED statement is allowed only within reports." A related NEED-usage restriction, about being used outside a report entirely rather than inside a header/trailer section.
-4309 — "Printing cannot be done within a loop or CASE statement contained in report headers or trailers." A related header/trailer restriction, about PRINT inside loops/CASE rather than NEED.

NEED is used inside a header/trailer section, which could cause an endless loop — remove it.