Informix Error -694

Reasons / Common Causes

-694 fires when a procedure call passes more arguments than the procedure's declaration accepts — per the official guidance, the direct, only cause.

1. A procedure call with more arguments than the procedure's parameter list declares — the direct, only cause.
2. The procedure's parameter list narrowed during editing (removing a parameter) without updating every call site to match.
3. The wrong (similarly-named) procedure called by mistake, one with a shorter parameter list than the one actually intended.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Review the procedure's declared parameter list and remove the extra argument(s) from the call — sysprocedures.numargs gives the declared argument count as a quick sanity check:

   SELECT procname, numargs FROM sysprocedures WHERE procname = 'update_order';
   

2. Confirm the correct procedure is being called, in case a similarly-named one with a shorter parameter list was intended instead.

Examples

The disallowed attempt

CREATE PROCEDURE update_order(p_order_id INT, p_status CHAR(10))
  ...
END PROCEDURE;

EXECUTE PROCEDURE update_order(42, 'shipped', 'extra');
-- -694: update_order takes 2 arguments, 3 were passed

Corrected

EXECUTE PROCEDURE update_order(42, 'shipped');

Diagnostic Checks

1. Count the arguments in the call against the procedure's declared parameter list, querying sysprocedures if the declaration isn't immediately visible.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -674 — "Routine routine-name cannot be resolved." A related routine-call error — an incorrect argument count is one of several conditions that error covers, while -694 is specific to passing too many arguments.

Recount the call's arguments against the procedure's actual declared parameter list.