Informix Error -4428: You may not use a PROMPT statement within an INPUT or PROMPT statement, even if it is enclosed within a conditional or looping statement.

Reasons / Common Causes

-4428 fires when a PROMPT statement's text is embedded directly inside an INPUT or another PROMPT statement — per the official guidance, executing one from within another is possible, but only by placing the inner statement in its own function and calling that function.

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

Solutions / Resolution

1. Place the inner PROMPT statement in its own function, and call that function from within the outer INPUT/PROMPT, per the official guidance.

Examples

An embedded PROMPT statement

INPUT BY NAME rec.*
  ON KEY(F3)
    PROMPT "Confirm? (y/n): " FOR response
    -- -4428: PROMPT cannot be embedded directly inside INPUT
END INPUT

Corrected

FUNCTION confirmPrompt()
  PROMPT "Confirm? (y/n): " FOR response
END FUNCTION

INPUT BY NAME rec.*
  ON KEY(F3)
    CALL confirmPrompt()
END INPUT

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check every INPUT/PROMPT statement for another PROMPT embedded directly inside it, and move the inner one 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.
• -4422 — "You may not use a CONSTRUCT statement within another INPUT statement." The same embedding restriction applied to CONSTRUCT inside INPUT.

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