FOR statement

Use this statement to repeat the execution of a statement list once for each row in a cursor.

Syntax

[ statement-label : ]
FOR for-loop-name AS cursor-name [ cursor-type ] CURSOR
 { FOR statement  [ FOR { UPDATE cursor-concurrency | FOR READ ONLY } ]
   | USING variable-name }
    DO statement-list
END FOR [ statement-label ]

cursor-type : 
NO SCROLL
   | DYNAMIC SCROLL
   | SCROLL
   | INSENSITIVE
   | SENSITIVE

cursor-concurrency : BY { VALUES | TIMESTAMP | LOCK }

variable-name : identifier

Parameters

NO SCROLL clause A cursor declared NO SCROLL is restricted to moving forward through the result set using FETCH NEXT and FETCH RELATIVE 0 seek operations.
As rows cannot be returned to once the cursor leaves the row, there are no sensitivity restrictions on the cursor. Consequently, when a NO SCROLL cursor is requested, SQL Anywhere supplies the most efficient kind of cursor, which is an asensitive cursor. See Asensitive cursors.
DYNAMIC SCROLL clause DYNAMIC SCROLL is the default cursor type. DYNAMIC SCROLL cursors can use all formats of the FETCH statement.
When a DYNAMIC SCROLL cursor is requested, SQL Anywhere supplies an asensitive cursor. When using cursors there is always a trade-off between efficiency and consistency. Asensitive cursors provide efficient performance at the expense of consistency. See Asensitive cursors.
SCROLL clause A cursor declared SCROLL can use all formats of the FETCH statement. When a SCROLL cursor is requested, SQL Anywhere supplies a value-sensitive cursor. See Value-sensitive cursors.
SQL Anywhere must execute value-sensitive cursors in such a way that result set membership is guaranteed. DYNAMIC SCROLL cursors are more efficient and should be used unless the consistent behavior of SCROLL cursors is required.
INSENSITIVE clause A cursor declared INSENSITIVE has its membership fixed when it is opened; a temporary table is created with a copy of all the original rows. FETCHING from an INSENSITIVE cursor does not see the effect of any other INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement, or any other PUT, UPDATE WHERE CURRENT, DELETE WHERE CURRENT operations on a different cursor. It does see the effect of PUT, UPDATE WHERE CURRENT, DELETE WHERE CURRENT operations on the same cursor. See Insensitive cursors.
SENSITIVE clause A cursor declared SENSITIVE is sensitive to changes to membership or values of the result set. See Sensitive cursors.
FOR UPDATE clause FOR UPDATE is the default. Cursors default to FOR UPDATE for single-table queries without an ORDER BY clause, or if the ansi_update_constraints option is set to Off. When the ansi_update_constraints option is set to Cursors or Strict, then cursors over a query containing an ORDER BY clause default to READ ONLY. However, you can explicitly mark cursors as updatable using the FOR UPDATE clause.
READ ONLY clause A cursor declared FOR READ ONLY cannot be used in an UPDATE (positioned) or a DELETE (positioned) operation. Because it is expensive to allow updates over cursors with an ORDER BY clause or a join, cursors over a query containing a join of two or more tables are READ ONLY and cannot be made updatable. In response to any request for a cursor that specifies FOR UPDATE, SQL Anywhere provides either a value-sensitive cursor or a sensitive cursor. Insensitive and asensitive cursors are not updatable.

Remarks

The FOR statement is a control statement that allows you to execute a list of SQL statements once for each row in a cursor. The FOR statement is equivalent to a compound statement with a DECLARE for the cursor and a DECLARE of a variable for each column in the result set of the cursor followed by a loop that fetches one row from the cursor into the local variables and executes statement-list once for each row in the cursor.

Valid cursor types include dynamic scroll (default), scroll, no scroll, sensitive, and insensitive.

The name and data type of each local variable is derived from the statement used in the cursor. With a SELECT statement, the data types are the data types of the expressions in the select list. The names are the select list item aliases, if they exist; otherwise, they are the names of the columns. Any select list item that is not a simple column reference must have an alias. With a CALL statement, the names and data types are taken from the RESULT clause in the procedure definition.

The LEAVE statement can be used to resume execution at the first statement after the END FOR. If the ending statement-label is specified, it must match the beginning statement-label.

Permissions

None.

Side effects

None.

Standards and compatibility

SQL/2003 Persistent Stored Module feature.

Example

The following fragment illustrates the use of the FOR loop.

FOR names AS curs INSENSITIVE CURSOR FOR
SELECT Surname
FROM Employees
DO
   CALL search_for_name( Surname );
END FOR;

This fragment also illustrates the use of the FOR loop.

BEGIN
    FOR names AS curs SCROLL CURSOR FOR
    SELECT EmployeeID, GivenName FROM Employees where EmployeeID < 130 
    FOR UPDATE BY VALUES
    DO   
        MESSAGE 'emp: ' || GivenName;
    END FOR;
END

The following example shows the FOR loop being using inside of a procedure called myproc, which returns the top 10 employees from the Employees table, depending on the sort order specified when calling the procedure (asc for ascending, and desc for descending).

CALL sa_make_object( 'procedure', 'myproc' ) ;
ALTER PROCEDURE myproc (
    IN @order_by VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT NULL
) 
RESULT ( Surname person_name_t )
BEGIN
    DECLARE @sql LONG VARCHAR;
    DECLARE @msg LONG VARCHAR;
    DECLARE LOCAL TEMPORARY TABLE temp_names( surnames person_name_t );    
    SET @sql = 'SELECT TOP(10) * FROM Employees AS t ' ;

    CASE @order_by
    WHEN 'asc' THEN
        SET @sql = @sql || 'ORDER BY t.Surname ASC';
        SET @msg = 'Sorted ascending by last name: '; 
    WHEN 'desc' THEN
        SET @sql = @sql || 'ORDER BY t.Surname DESC';
        SET @msg = 'Sorted ascending by last name: ';
    END CASE;

    FOR loop_name AS SCROLL CURSOR USING @sql
    DO
        INSERT INTO temp_names( surnames ) VALUES( Surname );
        MESSAGE( @msg || Surname ) ;
    END FOR;
    SELECT * FROM temp_names;
END ;

Calling the myproc procedure and specifying asc (for example, CALL myproc( 'asc' );) returns the following results:

Surname
Ahmed
Barker
Barletta
Bertrand
Bigelow
Blaikie
Braun
Breault
Bucceri
Butterfield

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