Let’s examine each step in greater detail. Explicit cursors are defined by programmers to gain more control over the context area. It is an essential component in stored procedures. The purpose of this example isn’t to go full detail on how to build a cursor, we’ll do that in a later article, rather, it’s to show you an example so you’ll be able to recognize them. A DECLARE CURSOR statement has the following syntax: Declare Cursor. A cursor is a temporary work area created in the system memory when a SQL statement is executed. A cursor is a select statement, defined in the declaration section in MySQL.. Syntax Here is an updated version of the previous example: Mysql cursor issue? A cursor in SQL is a temporary work area created in system memory when a SQL statement is executed. Both implicit and explicit cursors have the same functionality, but they differ in the way they are accessed. By Allen G. Taylor . Programmers are allowed to create named context area to execute their DML operations to get more control over it. In MySQL, Cursor can also be created. PL/SQL controls the context area through a Cursor. MySQL Cursor. If you do not explicitly close a cursor, MySQL will close it automatically when the END statement is reached. A SQL cursor is a set of rows together with a pointer that identifies a current row. However, a cursor does not need to be declared again to be used; an OPEN statement is sufficient. Let's take an example to demonstrate the use of explicit cursor. PL/SQL controls the context area through a cursor. 1. The explicit cursor should be defined in the declaration section of the PL/SQL block, and it is created for the 'SELECT' … Example Database Cursors in SQL. PL/SQL Explicit Cursor Example. Therefore, cursors are used as to speed the processing time of queries in large databases. The cursor block is so ugly that it's difficult to use in a clear and effective way. After a cursor is closed, it cannot be reused without being opened again. SQL is a set based language--that's what it does best. Working with PL/SQL Cursor. The set of rows the cursor holds is referred to as the active set. A cursor holds the rows (one or more) returned by a SQL statement. You can name a cursor so that it could be referred to in a program to fetch and process the rows returned by the SQL … You do this with a DECLARE CURSOR statement. A cursor contains information on a select statement and the rows of data accessed by it. Also, if the cursor is defined as SCROLLABLE we can even move back to the previous row. It is defined in the declaration section of the PL/SQL block. Following are the steps for creating a cursor. The set of rows the cursor holds is called the active set. A cursor can’t be used by itself in MySQL. Explicit cursors. The DECLARE CURSOR statement doesn’t actually cause anything to happen; it just announces the SQL cursor’s name to the DBMS and specifies what query the cursor will operate on. There are two types of cursors in PL/SQL : Implicit cursors. I think cursors are still a bad choice unless you understand enough about them to justify their use in limited circumstances. The following picture describes steps that you need to follow when you work with a PL/SQL cursor: PL/SQL Cursor. To use a SQL cursor, you first must declare its existence to the DBMS. It is created on a SELECT statement which returns more than one row. I have written a stored procedure which will travel's record from one table and insert those into 2-3 different tables using insert statements. A cursor can hold more than one row, but can process only one row at a time. A PL/SQL cursor is a pointer that points to the result set of an SQL query against database tables. Another reason I don't like cursors is clarity. 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