Informix Error -497

Reasons / Common Causes

-497 is the LC_TIME counterpart of -492/-494/-495/-496: the same class of NLS- environment-configuration error, here for the locale category governing date/time formatting (month/day names, date formats), rather than collation, character classification, monetary, or numeric formatting.

1. A typo or misspelling in the LANG/LC_TIME value.
2. A locale string not supported by the server's NLS configuration, even if valid in general OS terms.
3. Other locale categories correctly configured but LC_TIME overlooked or mismatched — each is configured independently.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Verify the exact value expected for the specific NLS-enabled database being connected to, consistent with the pattern for the other locale categories.
2. Check for typos in the LANG/LC_TIME environment variable's current value.
3. Check all relevant locale categories together (LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, LC_TIME) when configuring environment variables for an NLS-enabled database.

Examples

Checking current environment variable values

echo $LANG
echo $LC_TIME
-- compare against the exact value the target NLS-enabled
-- database actually requires for date/time formatting

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check the current values of LANG and LC_TIME.
2. Compare against the specific value the target database's NLS configuration requires.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -496 — "LANG or LC_NUMERIC environment variable invalid." The identical underlying issue, for LC_NUMERIC instead of LC_TIME.
• -492 — "LANG or LC_COLLATE environment variable invalid." The identical underlying issue, for LC_COLLATE instead of LC_TIME.

Same pattern as the other NLS locale-category errors — check LC_TIME specifically, since each category is configured independently of the others.