Informix Error -508

Reasons / Common Causes

-508 fires when RENAME TABLE targets a temporary table — Informix doesn't support renaming temp tables at all, regardless of the new name chosen.

1. RENAME TABLE issued against a temp table, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
2. A misspelled table name that happens to collide with an existing temp table's name, when a different (permanent) table was actually intended.
3. Generated schema-migration code that treats temp and permanent tables interchangeably, without checking a table's temporary status before attempting a rename.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Review the spelling of the table name, per the official guidance, in case a permanent table was intended instead.
2. If the temp table genuinely needs a different name, per the official guidance, drop it and re-create it under the new name rather than renaming it:

   DROP TABLE temp_orders;
   CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_orders_v2 (...);
   

Examples

The disallowed attempt

CREATE TEMP TABLE staging_orders (order_id INT, status CHAR(10));
RENAME TABLE staging_orders TO staging_orders_old;
-- -508: staging_orders is a temporary table

Working around it

DROP TABLE staging_orders;
CREATE TEMP TABLE staging_orders_old (order_id INT, status CHAR(10));

Diagnostic Checks

1. Confirm whether the target table is temporary before attempting a rename, since temp tables (including those created WITH NO LOG) don't appear in systables the same way permanent tables persist across sessions — if it was created with CREATE TEMP TABLE in the current session, it's a temp table.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -509 — "Cannot rename a column in a temporary table." The same restriction applied to column renames instead of table renames.
• -510 — "Cannot create synonym for temporary table table-name." The same restriction applied to synonym creation.

Temporary tables can't be renamed under any circumstances — drop and re-create under the new name instead.