cursors-transact-sql.md

title	Cursors (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
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ms.date	03/16/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	database-engine, sql-database
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ms.suite	sql
ms.technology	t-sql
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ms.topic	language-reference
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	statements [SQL Server], cursors functions [SQL Server], cursors cursors [SQL Server], statements
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author	douglaslMS
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Cursors (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-asdb-xxxx-xxx-md]

[!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