Informix Error -835: Current clause is invalid in interactive mode.

Reasons / Common Causes

-835 fires when WHERE CURRENT OF is used in an interactively-typed statement rather than inside a program driving a cursor — per the official guidance, CURRENT OF is only meaningful when a cursor is actually open and positioned, which the interactive context doesn't provide.

1. A positioned UPDATE/DELETE ... WHERE CURRENT OF cursor-name typed directly into the interactive tool, per the official guidance — there's no open cursor in that context for CURRENT OF to refer to.
2. SQL copy-pasted from a program's embedded SQL into the interactive tool, carrying over a WHERE CURRENT OF clause that only made sense in the original program context.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Specify a condition other than CURRENT in the WHERE clause, per the official guidance — identify the target row(s) by their actual column values instead.
2. If positioned update/delete behavior is genuinely needed, write and run a program (SPL routine or embedded-SQL client code) that declares and drives the cursor, rather than typing the statement interactively.

Examples

The disallowed interactive attempt

UPDATE orders SET status = 'shipped' WHERE CURRENT OF order_cursor;
-- -835: no cursor is open in this interactive context

Corrected — an ordinary condition instead

UPDATE orders SET status = 'shipped' WHERE order_id = 42;

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check whether the statement was typed interactively rather than run from within a program driving an actual open cursor.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -507 — "Cursor cursor-name not found." A related WHERE CURRENT OF error, about a cursor name that isn't currently open, rather than the interactive context lacking cursor support entirely.

CURRENT OF requires an actual open, positioned cursor — use an ordinary WHERE condition interactively instead.