Informix Error -885: Invalid or NULL utc time given to dbinfo(utc_to_datetime).

Reasons / Common Causes

-885 fires when DBINFO('utc_to_datetime', ...)'s second argument (the UTC time value to convert) is NULL or otherwise invalid — per the official guidance, a valid, non-NULL value is required.

1. The second argument evaluating to NULL, per the official guidance — for example, a variable that was never assigned, or a subquery that returned no rows.
2. A value that isn't a valid UTC time representation for what utc_to_datetime expects, per the official guidance's more general framing.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Pass a valid, non-null value to the DBINFO() function, per the official guidance.
2. Trace the second argument's source back to confirm it's guaranteed non-NULL and correctly formatted by the time DBINFO('utc_to_datetime', ...) evaluates it.

Examples

The disallowed attempt

DEFINE v_utc INT;
-- v_utc was never assigned a value; it's NULL
SELECT DBINFO('utc_to_datetime', v_utc) FROM systables WHERE tabid = 1;
-- -885: v_utc is NULL

Corrected

DEFINE v_utc INT;
LET v_utc = DBINFO('utc_current');
SELECT DBINFO('utc_to_datetime', v_utc) FROM systables WHERE tabid = 1;

Diagnostic Checks

1. Trace the value passed as the second argument to confirm it's non-NULL and valid before the DBINFO('utc_to_datetime', ...) call.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -726 — "First argument to dbinfo() must be a quoted string constant." A related DBINFO() argument-validation error, on the first argument rather than the second.
• -728 — "Unknown first argument of dbinfo(argument)." A related DBINFO() error, about the first argument not matching a recognized value at all.

Confirm the UTC time value passed is non-NULL and valid before the call.