DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Cursor types

A cursor type can be the built-in data type CURSOR or a user-defined type that is based on the built-in CURSOR data type. A user-defined cursor type can also be defined with a specific row type to restrict the attributes of the result row of the associated cursor.

When a cursor type is associated with a row data structure (specified by a row), it is called a strongly typed cursor. Only result sets that match the definition can be assigned to and stored in a variable of a strongly typed cursor data type. When no result set definition is associated with a cursor data type definition, the cursor data type is said to be weakly typed. Any result set can be stored in a variable of a weakly typed cursor data type.

The cursor data type is only supported for use with SQL PL. It is primarily used to create cursor type definitions that can be used for cursor variable declarations.

This data type can be used to:

Define cursor variable declarations.
Simplify the coding of logic within SQL Procedural Language applications. For example, database applications process sets of records called result sets and in some cases the same result set might need to be referenced and processed in different contexts. Passing defined result sets between interfaces can require complex logic. A cursor data type permits the creation of cursor variables which can be used to store result sets, process result sets, and pass result sets as parameters.
Facilitate the porting to DB2® SQL PL of code which has a similar data type.

Cursor data types must be created using the CREATE TYPE statement. Once this is done variables of this data type can be declared and referenced. Cursor variables can be assigned a row data structure definition, opened, closed, assigned a set of rows from another cursor variable, or be passed as a parameter from SQL procedures.