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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-22T15:32:02+00:00

With functionality from the RODBC package, I have successfully created an ODBC but receive

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With functionality from the RODBC package, I have successfully created an ODBC but receive error messages when I try to query the database. I am using the INFORMIX 3.31 32 bit driver (version 3.31.00.10287).

channel <- odbcConnect("exampleDSN")
unclass(channel)
[1] 3
attr(,"connection.string")
[1] "DSN=exampleDSN;UID=user;PWD=****;DB=exampleDB;HOST=exampleHOST;SRVR=exampleSRVR;SERV=exampleSERV;PRO=onsoctcp ... (more parameters)"
attr(,"handle_ptr")
<pointer: 0x0264c098>
attr(,"case")
[1] "nochange"
attr(,"id")
[1] 4182
attr(,"believeNRows")
[1] TRUE
attr(,"colQuote")
[1] "\""
attr(,"tabQuote")
[1] "\""
attr(,"interpretDot")
[1] TRUE
attr(,"encoding")
[1] ""
attr(,"rows_at_time")
[1] 100
attr(,"isMySQL")
[1] FALSE
attr(,"call")
odbcDriverConnect(connection = "DSN=exampleDSN")

When I try to query and investigate the structure of the returned object, I receive an error message ‘chr [1:2] “42000 -201 [Informix][Informix ODBC Driver][Informix]A syntax error has occurred.” …’

Specifically, I wrote an expression to loop through all tables in the database, retrieve 10 rows, and investigate the structure of the returned object.

for (i in 1:153){res <- sqlFetch(channel, sqlTables(channel, tableType="TABLE")$TABLE_NAME[i], max=10); str(res)}

Each iteration returns the same error message. Any ideas where to start?

ADDITIONAL INFO: When I return the object ‘res’, I receive the following –

> res
[1] "42000 -201 [Informix][Informix ODBC Driver][Informix]A syntax error has occurred."
[2] "[RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLExecDirect 'SELECT * FROM \"exampleTABLE\"'"
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can try using the sqlQuery() function in RODBC to retrieve your results. This is the function I use at work and have never had a problem with it:

    sqlQuery(channel, "select top 10 * from exampleTABLE")

    You should be able to put all of your queries into a list and iterate through them as you were before:

    dat <- lapply(queries, function(x) sqlQuery(channel, x))

    where queries is your list of queries and channel is your open ODBC connection. I guess I should also encourage you to close said connection when your done with odbcCloseAll()

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