Informix Error -973: Cannot insert from the violations table to the target table.

Reasons / Common Causes

-973 fires specifically on INSERT ... SELECT statements that try to move rows straight from a violations table back into the target table it belongs to, when that target still has filtering-mode objects in place.

1. INSERT INTO <table> SELECT * FROM <table>_vio (or equivalent) issued while the target table has one or more objects in filtering mode, per the official guidance — the direct, named trigger.
2. Not having changed the object mode, or stopped the violations table, before attempting the copy-back — per the official guidance's framing, this is what makes the insert unsafe: rows already known to violate the table's constraints would immediately re-trigger the same filtering behavior.

Solutions / Resolution

Per the official guidance, any of the following recovers:

1. Set the object mode of the filtering objects to some other mode (e.g. disabled or enabled) before inserting from the violations table.
2. Stop the violations table for the target table before inserting from it directly.
3. Insert via a temporary table: copy rows from the violations table into a temporary table, correct them there if needed, then insert from the temporary table into the target table — this avoids ever running an INSERT ... SELECT directly against the violations table while filtering mode is active.

Examples

The blocked direct copy-back

INSERT INTO mytable SELECT * FROM mytable_vio;
-- -973: Cannot insert from the violations table to the target table.
-- (mytable still has a filtering-mode object)

The documented workaround

CREATE TEMP TABLE mytable_fix AS SELECT * FROM mytable_vio;
-- correct rows in mytable_fix as needed
INSERT INTO mytable SELECT * FROM mytable_fix;

Diagnostic Checks

1. Confirm which objects on the target table are currently in filtering mode.
2. Confirm whether the violations table for the target is still active (started via START VIOLATIONS TABLE).

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -971 — "Integrity violations detected." The error that populates the violations table -973 is trying to copy rows back out of.
• -975 — "Invalid object and object mode combination." The broader rule about object/mode pairings that -973 is a specific, violations-table-scoped case of.

Route the copy-back through a temporary table, or change the object mode first — inserting straight from the violations table while filtering mode is active is what -973 blocks.