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Informix Error -801

-801 SQL Edit buffer is full.

The text editor cannot expand the buffer in which it stores your SQL statements because no more data space memory is available. If you have multiple statements in the buffer, execute them one at a time.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-801 fires in the interactive SQL text editor (used by tools like dbaccess) when the buffer holding entered statements runs out of memory to expand — per the official guidance, this happens when too much SQL text has accumulated in the editor buffer at once.

  1. Multiple large SQL statements accumulated in the same editor buffer, per the official guidance's implied cause, without executing/clearing between them.
  2. A very large single statement (extensive generated SQL, a huge IN list) that alone consumes most of the available buffer space.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Execute statements one at a time, per the official guidance, if multiple statements have accumulated in the buffer — clear it between executions rather than batching many statements together in the interactive editor.
  2. For a single very large statement, consider running it from a script file instead of the interactive editor, if the interactive buffer's memory limit is the binding constraint.
Examples
Executing one statement at a time instead of batching
> SELECT * FROM orders;
-- execute, review, clear the buffer
> SELECT * FROM order_items;
-- execute this one separately, rather than accumulating both in one buffer
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check how many statements have accumulated in the current editor buffer before the failure, and whether one very large statement or many smaller ones filled it.
Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -801 in this set yet.

An interactive-editor memory limit — execute statements one at a time, or run a very large statement from a script file instead.