Cursor management overview

Managing a cursor is similar to managing a file in a programming language. The following steps are used to manage cursors:

  1. Declare a cursor for a particular SELECT statement or procedure using the DECLARE statement.

  2. Open the cursor using the OPEN statement.

  3. Use the FETCH statement to retrieve results one row at a time from the cursor.

  4. The warning Row Not Found signals the end of the result set.

  5. Close the cursor using the CLOSE statement.

By default, cursors are automatically closed at the end of a transaction (on explicit or implied COMMIT or ROLLBACK statements). Cursors that are opened using the WITH HOLD clause will be kept open for subsequent transactions until they are explicitly closed.

The sp_iqcursorinfo stored procedure displays information about cursors currently open on the server. For more information, see “sp_iqcursorinfo procedure” in Chapter 10, “System Procedures” of the Sybase IQ Reference Manual.