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B.3 Server Error Codes and Messages »
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B.2. Types of Error Values

When an error occurs in MySQL, the server returns two types of error values:

  • A MySQL-specific error code. This value is numeric. It is not portable to other database systems.

  • An SQLSTATE value. The value is a five-character string (for example, '42S02'). The values are specified by ANSI SQL and ODBC and are more standardized.

A message string that provides a textual description of the error is also available.

When an error occurs, you can access the MySQL error code, the SQLSTATE value, and the message string using C API functions:

For prepared statements, the corresponding error functions are mysql_stmt_errno(), mysql_stmt_sqlstate(), and mysql_stmt_error(). All error functions are described in Section 20.8, “MySQL C API”.

The first two characters of an SQLSTATE value indicate the error class:

  • '00' indicates success.

  • '01' indicates a warning.

  • '02' indicates “not found.” These values are relevant only within the context of cursors and are used to control what happens when a cursor reaches the end of a data set.

  • Other values indicate an exception.