Informix Error -9143: Character, Text, and Byte data cannot be printed with using formats.

Reasons / Common Causes

-9143 fires when a USING format is applied to CHARACTER, TEXT, or BYTE data — per the official guidance.

1. A USING format applied to non-numeric data, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause; the USING function can only be applied to numeric data.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Revise the report specification to remove the USING format from the non-numeric value, per the official guidance.

Examples

USING applied to a character value

PRINT customer_name USING "&&&&&"   -- -9143: customer_name is CHARACTER

Corrected

PRINT customer_name

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check the data type of every value formatted with USING, and remove USING from any CHARACTER, TEXT, or BYTE value.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -9003 — "A USING format string may contain only one '.'." A related USING-format validity error, on format-string syntax rather than applicability to the data type.
• -9052 — "The format string is too large. It may not be larger than 79 characters." A related USING-format validity error, on length rather than applicability to the data type.
• -9142 — "Date conversion error." A related data-type-conversion error, for DATE values rather than USING formats.

A USING format was applied to non-numeric (CHARACTER/TEXT/BYTE) data — USING only applies to numeric data.