Delete from a row variable

A delete operation does not apply to a row variable because a delete normally removes a row from a table. The row variable represents the row-type value as a single table row in the collection-derived table. Each field in the row type is a column in this table. You cannot remove this single table row from the collection-derived table. Therefore, the DELETE statement does not support a row variable in the collection-derived table clause. Informix® ESQL/C returns an error if you attempt to perform a DELETE operation on a row variable.

However, you can use the UPDATE statement to delete existing field values in a row variable.