DECLARE(7)

NAME

   DECLARE - define a cursor

SYNOPSIS

   DECLARE name [ BINARY ] [ INSENSITIVE ] [ [ NO ] SCROLL ]
       CURSOR [ { WITH | WITHOUT } HOLD ] FOR query

DESCRIPTION

   DECLARE allows a user to create cursors, which can be used to retrieve
   a small number of rows at a time out of a larger query. After the
   cursor is created, rows are fetched from it using FETCH(7).

       Note
       This page describes usage of cursors at the SQL command level. If
       you are trying to use cursors inside a PL/pgSQL function, the rules
       are different --- see Section 40.7, "Cursors", in the documentation.

PARAMETERS

   name
       The name of the cursor to be created.

   BINARY
       Causes the cursor to return data in binary rather than in text
       format.

   INSENSITIVE
       Indicates that data retrieved from the cursor should be unaffected
       by updates to the table(s) underlying the cursor that occur after
       the cursor is created. In PostgreSQL, this is the default behavior;
       so this key word has no effect and is only accepted for
       compatibility with the SQL standard.

   SCROLL
   NO SCROLL
       SCROLL specifies that the cursor can be used to retrieve rows in a
       nonsequential fashion (e.g., backward). Depending upon the
       complexity of the query's execution plan, specifying SCROLL might
       impose a performance penalty on the query's execution time.  NO
       SCROLL specifies that the cursor cannot be used to retrieve rows in
       a nonsequential fashion. The default is to allow scrolling in some
       cases; this is not the same as specifying SCROLL. See NOTES for
       details.

   WITH HOLD
   WITHOUT HOLD
       WITH HOLD specifies that the cursor can continue to be used after
       the transaction that created it successfully commits.  WITHOUT HOLD
       specifies that the cursor cannot be used outside of the transaction
       that created it. If neither WITHOUT HOLD nor WITH HOLD is
       specified, WITHOUT HOLD is the default.

   query
       A SELECT(7) or VALUES(7) command which will provide the rows to be
       returned by the cursor.

   The key words BINARY, INSENSITIVE, and SCROLL can appear in any order.

NOTES

   Normal cursors return data in text format, the same as a SELECT would
   produce. The BINARY option specifies that the cursor should return data
   in binary format. This reduces conversion effort for both the server
   and client, at the cost of more programmer effort to deal with
   platform-dependent binary data formats. As an example, if a query
   returns a value of one from an integer column, you would get a string
   of 1 with a default cursor, whereas with a binary cursor you would get
   a 4-byte field containing the internal representation of the value (in
   big-endian byte order).

   Binary cursors should be used carefully. Many applications, including
   psql, are not prepared to handle binary cursors and expect data to come
   back in the text format.

       Note
       When the client application uses the "extended query" protocol to
       issue a FETCH command, the Bind protocol message specifies whether
       data is to be retrieved in text or binary format. This choice
       overrides the way that the cursor is defined. The concept of a
       binary cursor as such is thus obsolete when using extended query
       protocol --- any cursor can be treated as either text or binary.

   Unless WITH HOLD is specified, the cursor created by this command can
   only be used within the current transaction. Thus, DECLARE without WITH
   HOLD is useless outside a transaction block: the cursor would survive
   only to the completion of the statement. Therefore PostgreSQL reports
   an error if such a command is used outside a transaction block. Use
   BEGIN(7) and COMMIT(7) (or ROLLBACK(7)) to define a transaction block.

   If WITH HOLD is specified and the transaction that created the cursor
   successfully commits, the cursor can continue to be accessed by
   subsequent transactions in the same session. (But if the creating
   transaction is aborted, the cursor is removed.) A cursor created with
   WITH HOLD is closed when an explicit CLOSE command is issued on it, or
   the session ends. In the current implementation, the rows represented
   by a held cursor are copied into a temporary file or memory area so
   that they remain available for subsequent transactions.

   WITH HOLD may not be specified when the query includes FOR UPDATE or
   FOR SHARE.

   The SCROLL option should be specified when defining a cursor that will
   be used to fetch backwards. This is required by the SQL standard.
   However, for compatibility with earlier versions, PostgreSQL will allow
   backward fetches without SCROLL, if the cursor's query plan is simple
   enough that no extra overhead is needed to support it. However,
   application developers are advised not to rely on using backward
   fetches from a cursor that has not been created with SCROLL. If NO
   SCROLL is specified, then backward fetches are disallowed in any case.

   Backward fetches are also disallowed when the query includes FOR UPDATE
   or FOR SHARE; therefore SCROLL may not be specified in this case.

       Caution
       Scrollable and WITH HOLD cursors may give unexpected results if
       they invoke any volatile functions (see Section 35.6, "Function
       Volatility Categories", in the documentation). When a previously
       fetched row is re-fetched, the functions might be re-executed,
       perhaps leading to results different from the first time. One
       workaround for such cases is to declare the cursor WITH HOLD and
       commit the transaction before reading any rows from it. This will
       force the entire output of the cursor to be materialized in
       temporary storage, so that volatile functions are executed exactly
       once for each row.

   If the cursor's query includes FOR UPDATE or FOR SHARE, then returned
   rows are locked at the time they are first fetched, in the same way as
   for a regular SELECT(7) command with these options. In addition, the
   returned rows will be the most up-to-date versions; therefore these
   options provide the equivalent of what the SQL standard calls a
   "sensitive cursor". (Specifying INSENSITIVE together with FOR UPDATE or
   FOR SHARE is an error.)

       Caution
       It is generally recommended to use FOR UPDATE if the cursor is
       intended to be used with UPDATE ... WHERE CURRENT OF or DELETE ...
       WHERE CURRENT OF. Using FOR UPDATE prevents other sessions from
       changing the rows between the time they are fetched and the time
       they are updated. Without FOR UPDATE, a subsequent WHERE CURRENT OF
       command will have no effect if the row was changed since the cursor
       was created.

       Another reason to use FOR UPDATE is that without it, a subsequent
       WHERE CURRENT OF might fail if the cursor query does not meet the
       SQL standard's rules for being "simply updatable" (in particular,
       the cursor must reference just one table and not use grouping or
       ORDER BY). Cursors that are not simply updatable might work, or
       might not, depending on plan choice details; so in the worst case,
       an application might work in testing and then fail in production.

       The main reason not to use FOR UPDATE with WHERE CURRENT OF is if
       you need the cursor to be scrollable, or to be insensitive to the
       subsequent updates (that is, continue to show the old data). If
       this is a requirement, pay close heed to the caveats shown above.

   The SQL standard only makes provisions for cursors in embedded SQL. The
   PostgreSQL server does not implement an OPEN statement for cursors; a
   cursor is considered to be open when it is declared. However, ECPG, the
   embedded SQL preprocessor for PostgreSQL, supports the standard SQL
   cursor conventions, including those involving DECLARE and OPEN
   statements.

   You can see all available cursors by querying the pg_cursors system
   view.

EXAMPLES

   To declare a cursor:

       DECLARE liahona CURSOR FOR SELECT * FROM films;

   See FETCH(7) for more examples of cursor usage.

COMPATIBILITY

   The SQL standard says that it is implementation-dependent whether
   cursors are sensitive to concurrent updates of the underlying data by
   default. In PostgreSQL, cursors are insensitive by default, and can be
   made sensitive by specifying FOR UPDATE. Other products may work
   differently.

   The SQL standard allows cursors only in embedded SQL and in modules.
   PostgreSQL permits cursors to be used interactively.

   Binary cursors are a PostgreSQL extension.

SEE ALSO

   CLOSE(7), FETCH(7), MOVE(7)

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