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Informix Error -4406: There is an unmatched quote in the above line.

Cause and resolution

There is an unmatched quote in the above line.

The source line contains an odd number of quote symbols. Inspect it from left to right and make sure that all literal character strings begin and end with a quote. All literal strings must begin and end on the same logical line. However, you can write long literal strings in two ways. First, you can escape the end of line by making the final character in the line a backslash (however, there is a fixed maximum of 256 characters on the total length of a single quoted string). Second, in the DISPLAY and LET statements, you can concatenate shorter literal strings using the comma. Here are two examples.

DISPLAY "abcdefghijkl\

mnopqrstuvwxyz"

DISPLAY "abcdefghijkl",

"mnopqrstuvwxyz"

Both display the alphabet with no embedded white space.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-4406 fires when a source line has an odd number of quote symbols — per the official guidance, literal strings must begin and end on the same logical line, unless escaped with a trailing backslash (subject to a 256-character maximum), or split across DISPLAY/LET statements using comma concatenation.

  1. A literal string missing its closing (or opening) quote, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Inspect the line left to right and confirm every literal string begins and ends with a quote, per the official guidance.
  2. To span multiple lines, escape the line ending with a trailing backslash (max 256 total characters), or concatenate shorter literals with commas in DISPLAY/LET statements, per the official guidance.
Examples
A backslash-escaped multi-line string
DISPLAY "abcdefghijkl\
mnopqrstuvwxyz"
A comma-concatenated multi-line string
DISPLAY "abcdefghijkl",
        "mnopqrstuvwxyz"
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check the flagged line for an odd number of quote characters, and correct the missing quote, or use one of the two supported multi-line techniques.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -4408 — "There is a quoted string that is too long in the above line." A related quoted-string error, about exceeding the 256-character limit rather than an unmatched quote.

A source line has an unmatched quote — check for a missing quote, or use backslash-escaping or comma concatenation to span multiple lines.