Using Transact-SQL Cursor Syntax

In order to using Transact-SQL cursors, you have to perform the following steps:

1. Create a cursor with declare cursor statement based on a SELECT statement.

   Declare cursor statement :

      DECLARE cursor_name CURSOR 
      FOR select_statement 
      

2. Populate the cursor with Open statement

   The Open cursor statement

   	 OPEN {{[GLOBAL] cursor_name} cursor_variable_name} 
   	

3. Use the fetch statement to change the current record in the cursor and stores that record into a local variables

   The FETCH cursor statement

   	FETCH  [[NEXT | PRIOR | FIRST | LAST
                     | ABSOLUTE {n | @NVAR}
                     | RELATIVE {n | @NVAR}
              ]FROM]
        {{[GLOBAL] cursor_name }|@cursor_variable_name}
        [INTO @variable_name[, . . .n] ]
   	

4. Process the retrieved data
5. Loop the step 3 and 4 until the final record in the result set is reached
6. Close the cursor with close statement

   	CLOSE {{[GLOBAL] cursor_name }|cursor_variable_name}
   	

7. Deallocate the cursor by using Deallocate statement

   	DEALLOCATE {{[GLOBAL] cursor_name }|@cursor_variable_name}
   	

It would be easier to explain how to use transact-SQL cursor work via an example. Let's move to the an example how to use cursor.