cursors-transact-sql.md

title	Cursors (Transact-SQL)
description	Cursors (Transact-SQL)
author	rwestMSFT
ms.author	randolphwest
ms.reviewer
ms.date	03/16/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	database-engine, sql-database
ms.technology	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom
helpviewer_keywords	statements [SQL Server], cursors functions [SQL Server], cursors cursors [SQL Server], statements
dev_langs	TSQL

Cursors (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance]

[!INCLUDEmsCoName] [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] statements produce a complete result set, but there are times when the results are best processed one row at a time. Opening a cursor on a result set allows processing the result set one row at a time. You can assign a cursor to a variable or parameter with a cursor data type.

Cursor operations are supported on these statements:

CLOSE

CREATE PROCEDURE

DEALLOCATE

DECLARE CURSOR

DECLARE @local_variable

DELETE

FETCH

OPEN

UPDATE

SET

These system functions and system stored procedures also support cursors:

@@CURSOR_ROWS

CURSOR_STATUS

@@FETCH_STATUS

sp_cursor_list

sp_describe_cursor

sp_describe_cursor_columns

sp_describe_cursor_tables

See Also

Cursors