ASA SQL User's Guide
  Using Procedures, Triggers, and Batches
    Using cursors in procedures and triggers

Cursor management overview

Managing a cursor is similar to managing a file in a programming language. The following steps 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 COMMIT or ROLLBACK statements). Cursors are opened using the WITH HOLD clause will stay open for subsequent transactions until someone explicitly closes them.

For more information on positioning cursors, see Cursor positioning.