Many error messages are generated by the AVM itself. These run-time system error messages give information about what failed when an ERROR or STOP condition is raised. Error messages can also be specified by the application itself. For the remainder of this document, the term error message refers to either an OpenEdge system error message (execution message), or a user-defined application error message. However, this section specifically discusses what is in a system error message.

An OpenEdge error is associated with an error string and an error number, as shown in the following example:

Error string (Error number)
**FIND FIRST/LAST failed for table Customer (565)

In this example, "**FIND FIRST/LAST failed for table Customer" is the error string, and "565" is the error number. In OpenEdge documentation, the term error message refers to the error string and error number together.

To see additional information for obtaining specific error messages through the Help system see OpenEdge messages.