DECLARE SQL - Language Statements DECLARE define a cursor DECLARE DECLARE cursorname [ BINARY ] [ INSENSITIVE ] [ [ NO ] SCROLL ] CURSOR [ { WITH | WITHOUT } HOLD ] FOR query [ FOR { READ ONLY | UPDATE [ OF column [, ...] ] } ] 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. Cursors can return data either in text or in binary format using . Normal cursors return data in text format, the same as a SELECT would produce. Since data is stored natively in binary format, the system must do a conversion to produce the text format. Once the information comes back in text form, the client application may need to convert it to a binary format to manipulate it. In addition, data in the text format is often larger in size than in the binary format. Binary cursors return the data in the native binary representation. Nevertheless, if you intend to display the data as text anyway, retrieving it in text form will save you some effort on the client side. 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 value containing the internal representation of the value. 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. The string representation is architecture-neutral whereas binary representation can differ between different machine architectures. PostgreSQL does not resolve byte ordering or representation issues for binary cursors. Therefore, if your client machine and server machine use different representations (e.g., big-endian versus little-endian), you will probably not want your data returned in binary format. cursorname The name of the cursor to be used in subsequent FETCH operations. 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 tables underlying the cursor while the cursor exists. In PostgreSQL, all cursors are insensitive; this key word currently has no effect and is present for compatibility with the SQL standard. SCROLL NO SCROLL SCROLL specifies that the cursor may be used to retrieve rows in a nonsequential fashion (e.g., backward). Depending upon the complexity of the query's execution plan, specifying SCROLL may 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. WITH HOLD WITHOUT HOLD WITH HOLD specifies that the cursor may 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 command that will provide the rows to be returned by the cursor. Refer to for further information about valid queries. FOR READ ONLY FOR UPDATE FOR READ ONLY indicates that the cursor will be used in a read-only mode. FOR UPDATE indicates that the cursor will be used to update tables. Since cursor updates are not currently supported in PostgreSQL, specifying FOR UPDATE will cause an error message and specifying FOR READ ONLY has no effect. column Column(s) to be updated by the cursor. Since cursor updates are not currently supported in PostgreSQL, the FOR UPDATE clause provokes an error message. The key words BINARY, INSENSITIVE, and SCROLL may appear in any order. DECLARE CURSOR The message returned if the cursor was successfully defined. ERROR: cursor "cursorname" already exists This error occurs if a cursor with the same name already exists. ERROR: DECLARE CURSOR may only be used in begin/end transaction blocks This error occurs if the cursor is not declared within a transaction block, and WITH HOLD is not specified. If WITH HOLD is not specified, the cursor created by this command can only be used within the current transaction. Use , and 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. 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. 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. To declare a cursor: DECLARE liahona CURSOR FOR SELECT * FROM films; See for more examples of cursor usage. The SQL standard allows cursors only in embedded SQL and in modules. PostgreSQL permits cursors to be used interactively. The SQL standard allows cursors to update table data. All PostgreSQL cursors are read only. Binary cursors are a PostgreSQL extension.