Question

I’m having trouble creating this stored procedure on IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 10.00.FC9 (see Jonathan Leffler’s answer to this post here) using the ‘isql’ command from Informix SQL.

I get an error on the ( char for each of his two examples near RETURNING CHAR(8)

ex. 1:

CREATE PROCEDURE ampm_time(tm SMALLINT) RETURNING CHAR(8);
    DEFINE hh SMALLINT;
    DEFINE mm SMALLINT;
    DEFINE am SMALLINT;
    DEFINE m3 CHAR(3);
    DEFINE a3 CHAR(3);
    LET hh = MOD(tm / 100 + 11, 12) + 1;
    LET mm = MOD(tm, 100) + 100;
    LET am = MOD(tm / 1200, 2);
    LET m3 = mm;
    IF am = 0
    THEN LET a3 = ' am';
    ELSE LET a3 = ' pm';
    END IF;
    RETURN (hh || ':' || m3[2,3] || a3);
END PROCEDURE;

ex. 2:

CREATE PROCEDURE ampm_time(tm SMALLINT) RETURNING CHAR(8);
    DEFINE i2 SMALLINT;
    DEFINE hh SMALLINT;
    DEFINE mm SMALLINT;
    DEFINE am SMALLINT;
    DEFINE m3 CHAR(3);
    DEFINE a3 CHAR(3);
    LET i2 = tm / 100;
    LET hh = MOD(i2 + 11, 12) + 1;
    LET mm = MOD(tm, 100) + 100;
    LET i2 = tm / 1200;
    LET am = MOD(i2, 2);
    LET m3 = mm;
    IF am = 0
    THEN LET a3 = ' am';
    ELSE LET a3 = ' pm';
    END IF;
    RETURN (hh || ':' || m3[2,3] || a3);
END PROCEDURE;

They were designed by Jonathan Leffler (Informix Magician extraordinaire) in an effort to resolve the question I asked in the linked post. The intended return is to convert an INT datatype holding military time into a 2:30 pm type format.

Answer 1

This problem is DB-Access vs ISQL.

ISQL has a warped sense of humour and thinks that the syntax of SQL still matches what was current with Informix OnLine 4.10 (or, in those days, INFORMIX-OnLine 4.10). Specifically, it doesn’t know that stored procedures are made up of multiple statements separated by semi-colons and mis-assumes that SQL statements end at the first semi-colon not in a string or comment.

Workarounds:

• Use DB-Access instead of ISQL to create stored procedures.
• Obtain SQLCMD from the IIUG Software Archive and use that instead.
• Use ‘mkproc’ from the SQLCMD software to create stored procedures.

Of these, the easiest is to use DB-Access (aka dbaccess – found in $INFORMIXDIR/bin where the server software lives).