Informix Error -4422: You may not use a CONSTRUCT statement within another INPUT statement. This includes situations when CONSTRUCT is enclosed within a conditional or looping statement. You must call a function that executes the CONSTRUCT statement.

Reasons / Common Causes

-4422 fires when a CONSTRUCT statement's text is embedded directly inside an INPUT statement — per the official guidance, executing CONSTRUCT from within INPUT is possible, but only by placing CONSTRUCT in its own function and calling that function.

1. CONSTRUCT statement text embedded directly inside an INPUT statement, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Place the CONSTRUCT statement in its own function, and call that function from within the INPUT statement, per the official guidance.

Examples

An embedded CONSTRUCT statement

INPUT BY NAME rec.*
  ON KEY(F2)
    CONSTRUCT BY NAME query_clause ON order_id, order_date
    -- -4422: CONSTRUCT cannot be embedded directly inside INPUT
END INPUT

Corrected

FUNCTION buildQuery()
  CONSTRUCT BY NAME query_clause ON order_id, order_date
END FUNCTION

INPUT BY NAME rec.*
  ON KEY(F2)
    CALL buildQuery()
END INPUT

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check every INPUT statement for a CONSTRUCT embedded directly inside it, and move CONSTRUCT into its own function.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -4421 — "You may not use an INPUT statement within another INPUT statement or PROMPT statement, even if it is enclosed within a conditional or looping statement." The same embedding restriction applied to INPUT inside INPUT/PROMPT.

CONSTRUCT is embedded directly inside INPUT — move it into its own function and call that function instead.