A Case FOR Cursors...

We've all heard that definitive statement: "Avoid using cursors." But, in my opinion, what really should be conveyed is: "Avoid using row-by-row operations when possible."

Global Cursors

Stairway to Advanced T-SQL Level 4: Record Level Processing Using Transact-SQL Cursors

Using a CURSOR is not normally the best way to process through a set of records. Yet when a seasoned programmer moves to writing TSQL for the first time they frequently look for ways to process a sets of records one row at a time. They do this because they are not used to thinking about processing records as a set. In order to process through a TSQL record set a row at a time you can use a cursor. A cursor is a record set that is defined with the DECLARE CURSOR statement. Cursors can be defined as either read-only or updatable. In this article I will introduce you to using cursors to do record level processing one row at a time.

Performance Improvement for Cursors in Stored Procedures

Exploring some differences between using cursors, local fast forward cursors and using set logic.

Cursor-Killing: Retrieving Recently Modified Data

Cursors are considered by many to be the bane of good T-SQL. What are the best ways to avoid iterative T-SQL and to write queries that look and perform beautifully? In the next part of an ongoing series, we look at ways to efficiently retrieve recently modified data.

Cursor-Killing: Accessing Data in the Next Row

Cursors are considered by many to be the bane of good T-SQL. What are the best ways to avoid iterative T-SQL and to write queries that look and perform beautifully? This first part in an ongoing series of cursor-killing handles inter-row analysis.

Right or Wrong, Dynamic SQL AND a Cursor

I'm no big fan of dynamic SQL or cursors, however there are times where they do the job.

Virtual tally table function

An inline table-valued function (iTVF) that will produce a virtual tally table on-the-fly. The function creates a tally table of any size with user-defined lower and upper bounds.

A simple T-SQL statement to create a list of lookup values

In this article, we provide a simple way to get a comma delimited list from a table of entries without having to use a CURSOR or a WHILE loop to read through the table.

What Every DBA Ought to Know About SQL Server Cursors (and Their Alternatives)

Cursors provide a means of processing through a set of records row-by-row. However, many companies have a policy against using cursors in their SQL Server standards. This article examines the problem with cursors and alternatives to using them.