Using SQL Server Cursors

General concepts

In this article, I want to tell you how to create and use server side cursors and how you can
optimize a cursor performance.

Cursor is a database object used by applications to manipulate data in a set on a row-by-

row basis, instead of the typical SQL commands that operate on all the rows in the set at
one time. For example, you can use cursor to include a list of all user databases and make
multiple operations against each database by passing each database name as a variable.

The server side cursors were first added in SQL Server 6.0 release and now supported in all
editions of SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000.

Before using cursor, you first must declare the cursor. Once a cursor has been declared, you
can open it and fetch from it. You can fetch row by row and make multiple operations on the
currently active row in the cursor. When you have finished working with a cursor, you
should close cursor and deallocate it to release SQL Server resources.

Declaring a Cursor

Before using cursor, you first must declare the cursor, i.e. define its scrolling behavior and
the query used to build the result set on which the cursor operates. To declare cursor, you
can use a syntax based on the SQL-92 standard and a syntax using a set of Transact-SQL
extensions.

SQL-92 Syntax

This is SQL-92 Syntax:

DECLARE cursor_name [INSENSITIVE] [SCROLL] CURSOR

FOR select_statement
[FOR {READ ONLY | UPDATE [OF column_name [,...n]]}]
where

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.

INSENSITIVE - specifies that cursor will use a temporary copy of the data instead of base
tables. This cursor does not allow modifications and modifications made to base tables are
not reflected in the data returned by fetches made to this cursor.

SCROLL - specifies that cursor can fetch data in all directions, not only sequentially until
the end of the result set. If this argument is not specified, FETCH NEXT is the only fetch
option supported.

select_statement - the standard select statement, cannot contain COMPUTE, COMPUTE

BY, FOR BROWSE, and INTO keywords.

READ ONLY - specifies that cursor cannot be updated.

UPDATE [OF column_name [,...n]] - specifies that all cursor's columns can be updated
(if OF column_name [,...n] is not specified), or only the columns listed in the OF
column_name [,...n] list allow modifications.

Cursor Options Compatibility

INSENSITIVE SCROLL READ ONLY UPDATE

INSENSITIVE Yes Yes No
SCROLL Yes Yes Yes
READ ONLY Yes Yes No
UPDATE No Yes No

Transact-SQL Extended Syntax

This is Transact-SQL Extended Syntax:

DECLARE cursor_name CURSOR

[LOCAL | GLOBAL]
[FORWARD_ONLY | SCROLL]
[STATIC | KEYSET | DYNAMIC | FAST_FORWARD]
[READ_ONLY | SCROLL_LOCKS | OPTIMISTIC]
[TYPE_WARNING]
FOR select_statement
[FOR UPDATE [OF column_name [,...n]]]
where

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.

LOCAL - specifies that cursor can be available only in the batch, stored procedure, or
trigger in which the cursor was created. The LOCAL cursor will be implicitly deallocated
when the batch, stored procedure, or trigger terminates.

GLOBAL - specifies that cursor is global to the connection. The GLOBAL cursor will be
implicitly deallocated at disconnect.

FORWARD_ONLY - specifies that cursor can only fetch data sequentially from the first to
the last row. FETCH NEXT is the only fetch option supported.

STATIC - specifies that cursor will use a temporary copy of the data instead of base tables.
This cursor does not allow modifications and modifications made to base tables are not
reflected in the data returned by fetches made to this cursor.

KEYSET - specifies that cursor uses the set of keys that uniquely identify the cursor's rows
(keyset), so that the membership and order of rows in the cursor are fixed when the cursor
is opened. SQL Server uses a table in tempdb to store keyset. The KEYSET cursor allows
updates nonkey values from being made through this cursor, but inserts made by other
users are not visible. Updates nonkey values made by other users are visible as the owner
scrolls around the cursor, but updates key values made by other users are not visible. If a
row is deleted, an attempt to fetch the row returns an @@FETCH_STATUS of -2.

DYNAMIC - specifies that cursor reflects all data changes made to the base tables as you
scroll around the cursor. FETCH ABSOLUTE option is not supported with DYNAMIC cursor.

FAST_FORWARD - specifies that cursor will be FORWARD_ONLY and READ_ONLY cursor.

The FAST_FORWARD cursors produce the least amount of overhead on SQL Server.

READ ONLY - specifies that cursor cannot be updated.

SCROLL_LOCKS - specifies that cursor will lock the rows as they are read into the cursor to
ensure that positioned updates or deletes made through the cursor will be succeed.

OPTIMISTIC - specifies that cursor does not lock rows as they are read into the cursor. So,
the positioned updates or deletes made through the cursor will not succeed if the row has
been updated outside the cursor since this row was read into the cursor.

TYPE_WARNING - specifies that if the cursor will be implicitly converted from the
requested type to another, a warning message will be sent to the client.

select_statement - the standard select statement, cannot contain COMPUTE, COMPUTE

BY, FOR BROWSE, and INTO keywords.

UPDATE [OF column_name [,...n]] - specifies that all cursor's columns can be updated
(if OF column_name [,...n] is not specified), or only the columns listed in the OF
column_name [,...n] list allow modifications.

Cursor Options Compatibility

(L) (G) (FO) (S) (K) (D) (FF) (RO) (SL) (O) (TW) (U)
LOCAL (L) No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GLOBAL (G) No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FORWARD_ONLY (FO) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
STATIC (S) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No
KEYSET (K) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DYNAMIC (D) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FAST_FORWARD (FF) Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No Yes No
READ_ONLY (RO) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
SCROLL_LOCKS (SL) Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
OPTIMISTIC (O) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
TYPE_WARNING (TW) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
UPDATE (U) Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes

Opening a Cursor

Once a cursor has been declared, you must open it to fetch data from it. To open a cursor,
you can use the following syntax:

OPEN { { [GLOBAL] cursor_name } | cursor_variable_name}

where

GLOBAL - if this argument was not specified and both a global and a local cursor exist with
the same name, the local cursor will be opened; otherwise, the global cursor will be opened.

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.
cursor_variable_name - the name of a cursor variable that references a cursor.

After a cursor is opening, you can determine the number of rows that were found by the
cursor. To get this number, you can use @@CURSOR_ROWS scalar function.

Fetching a Cursor

Once a cursor has been opened, you can fetch from it row by row and make multiple
operations on the currently active row in the cursor. To fetch from a cursor, you can use the
following syntax:

FETCH
[ [ NEXT | PRIOR | FIRST | LAST
| ABSOLUTE {n | @nvar}
| RELATIVE {n | @nvar}
]
FROM
]
{ { [GLOBAL] cursor_name } | @cursor_variable_name}
[INTO @variable_name[,...n] ]
where

NEXT - the default cursor fetch option. FETCH NEXT returns the next row after the current
row.

PRIOR - returns the prior row before the current row.

FIRST - returns the first row in the cursor.

LAST - returns the last row in the cursor.

ABSOLUTE {n | @nvar} - returns the nth row in the cursor. If a positive number was
specified, the rows are counted from the top of the data set; if 0 was specified, no rows are
returned; if a negative number was specified, the number of rows will be counted from the
bottom of the data set.

RELATIVE {n | @nvar} - returns the nth row in the cursor relative to the current row. If a
positive number was specified, returns the nth row beyond the current row; if a negative
number was specified, returns the nth row prior the current row; if 0 was specified, returns
the current row.

GLOBAL - if this argument was not specified and both a global and a local cursor exist with
the same name, the local cursor will be fetched; otherwise, the global cursor will be fetched.

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.

cursor_variable_name - the name of a cursor variable that references a cursor.

INTO @variable_name[,...n] - allows data returned from the cursor to be held in

temporary variables. The type of variables must match the type of columns in the cursor
select list or support implicit conversion. The number of variables must match the number
of columns in the cursor select list.

Closing a Cursor
When you have finished working with a cursor, you can close it to release any resources and
locks that SQL Server may have used while the cursor was open.
To close a cursor, you can use the following syntax:

CLOSE { { [GLOBAL] cursor_name } | cursor_variable_name }

where

GLOBAL - if this argument was not specified and both a global and a local cursor exist with
the same name, the local cursor will be closed; otherwise, the global cursor will be closed.

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.

cursor_variable_name - the name of a cursor variable that references a cursor.

Note. If you have closed a cursor, but have not deallocated it, you can open it again when
needed.

Deallocating a Cursor

When you have finished working with a cursor and want to completely release SQL Server
resources that were used by a cursor, you can deallocate a cursor.
To deallocate a cursor, you can use the following syntax:

DEALLOCATE { { [GLOBAL] cursor_name } | @cursor_variable_name}

where

GLOBAL - if this argument was not specified and both a global and a local cursor exist with
the same name, the local cursor will be deallocated; otherwise, the global cursor will be
deallocated.

cursor_name - the name of the server side cursor, must contain from 1 to 128 characters.

cursor_variable_name - the name of a cursor variable that references a cursor.

Note. Deallocating a cursor completely removes all cursor references. So, after a cursor is
deallocated, it no longer can be opened.

Cursor Optimization Tips

• Try to avoid using SQL Server cursors, whenever possible.

SQL Server cursors can results in some performance degradation in comparison with
select statements. Try to use correlated subquery or derived tables, if you need to
perform row-by-row operations.
• Do not forget to close SQL Server cursor when its result set is not needed.
To close SQL Server cursor, you can use CLOSE {cursor_name} command. This
command releases the cursor result set and frees any cursor locks held on the rows
on which the cursor is positioned.
• Do not forget to deallocate SQL Server cursor when the data structures
comprising the cursor are not needed.
To deallocate SQL Server cursor, you can use DEALLOCATE {cursor_name}
command. This command removes a cursor reference and releases the data
structures comprising the cursor.
• Try to reduce the number of records to process in the cursor.
To reduce the cursor result set, use the WHERE clause in the cursor's select
statement. It can increase cursor performance and reduce SQL Server overhead.
• Try to reduce the number of columns to process in the cursor.
Include in the cursor's select statement only necessary columns. It will reduce the
cursor result set. So, the cursor will use fewer resources. It can increase cursor
performance and reduce SQL Server overhead.
• Use READ ONLY cursors, whenever possible, instead of updatable cursors.
Because using cursors can reduce concurrency and lead to unnecessary locking, try
to use READ ONLY cursors, if you do not need to update cursor result set.
• Try avoid using insensitive, static and keyset cursors, whenever possible.
These types of cursor produce the largest amount of overhead on SQL Server,
because they cause a temporary table to be created in TEMPDB, which results in
some performance degradation.
• Use FAST_FORWARD cursors, whenever possible.
The FAST_FORWARD cursors produce the least amount of overhead on SQL Server,
because there are read-only cursors and can only be scrolled from the first to the
last row. Use FAST_FORWARD cursor if you do not need to update cursor result set
and the FETCH NEXT will be the only used fetch option.
• Use FORWARD_ONLY cursors, if you need updatable cursor and the FETCH
NEXT will be the only used fetch option.
If you need read-only cursor and the FETCH NEXT will be the only used fetch option,
try to use FAST_FORWARD cursor instead of FORWARD_ONLY cursor. By the way, if
one of the FAST_FORWARD or FORWARD_ONLY is specified the other cannot be
specified.