Informix Error -692

-692 Key value for constraint constraint-name is still being referenced.

You have violated a referential constraint. This situation usually occurs when you are trying to delete a row in a column (parent key) that another row (child key) is referencing. If you are using cascading deletes, database logging must be on.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-692 is the mirror image of -691: it fires when DELETE (or an UPDATE changing a key value) removes a parent-key row that one or more child rows still reference — per the official guidance, the same cascading-deletes-require-logging requirement noted for -690/-691 also applies here.

DELETE on a parent row that child rows still reference, per the official guidance — the ordinary, most common cause.
Cascading deletes attempted on an unlogged database, per the official guidance's shared note — logging must be on for cascading deletes to work.

Solutions / Resolution

Delete the referencing child rows first, if removing them along with the parent is genuinely intended:
```
DELETE FROM order_items WHERE order_id = 42;
DELETE FROM orders WHERE order_id = 42;
```
Or use ON DELETE CASCADE on the foreign key, if cascading deletion is the desired standing behavior — confirming the database has logging enabled first, per the official guidance's requirement:
```
SELECT name, is_logging FROM sysmaster:sysdatabases WHERE name = 'target_db';
```

Find every table that still references the parent row, if it's not obvious from the schema alone — joined through sysreferences (ptabid is the referenced/parent table) and filtered to the specific parent table being deleted from:

SELECT c.tabname AS referencing_table, k.constrname
FROM sysreferences r, sysconstraints k, systables c
WHERE r.constrid = k.constrid
  AND k.tabid = c.tabid
  AND r.ptabid = (SELECT tabid FROM systables WHERE tabname = 'orders');

Examples

The disallowed delete

DELETE FROM orders WHERE order_id = 42;
-- -692: order_items still has rows referencing order_id 42

Corrected — delete children first

DELETE FROM order_items WHERE order_id = 42;
DELETE FROM orders WHERE order_id = 42;

Diagnostic Checks

Query the referencing (child) table for rows matching the parent key being deleted.
Check is_logging if cascading deletes are involved and the error persists unexpectedly.

Related Errors / Related Topics

-690 — "Cannot read keys from referencing table table-name." A related referential- integrity error, sharing this error's cascading-deletes-logging requirement.
-691 — "Missing key in referenced table for referential constraint constraint-name." The mirror-image violation: inserting an orphaned child, rather than deleting a still-referenced parent.

The mirror image of -691 — delete (or cascade-delete) the referencing child rows before removing the parent row they depend on.