Informix Error -509

Reasons / Common Causes

-509 fires when RENAME COLUMN targets a column of a temporary table — the same restriction as -508, applied at the column level instead of the table level.

1. RENAME COLUMN issued against a column of 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 permanent table's column was actually intended.
3. Migration code that renames columns uniformly across a mix of permanent and temp tables, without excluding the temp ones.

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's column genuinely needs a different name, per the official guidance, drop the table and re-create it with the column already named correctly:

   DROP TABLE temp_orders;
   CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_orders (order_id INT, order_status CHAR(10));
   

Examples

The disallowed attempt

CREATE TEMP TABLE staging_orders (order_id INT, status CHAR(10));
RENAME COLUMN staging_orders.status TO order_status;
-- -509: staging_orders is a temporary table

Working around it

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

Diagnostic Checks

1. Confirm whether the table is temporary before attempting a column rename — if it was created with CREATE TEMP TABLE in the current session, a rename isn't available; re-creating it with the desired column name from the start is the only path.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -508 — "Cannot rename a temporary table." The same restriction applied to the table name itself rather than a column.
• -510 — "Cannot create synonym for temporary table table-name." The same restriction applied to synonym creation.

Same restriction as -508, one level down: temp table columns can't be renamed either — re-create the table with the column already named correctly.