A cursor accesses the results of a SQL select statement one or more rows at a time. Cursors allow you to modify or delete individual rows or a group of rows.
Cursor functionality changes significantly in Adaptive Server version 15.0, which introduces scrollable, read-only cursors. The scrollable cursor allows you to select one or several rows, and to scroll back and forth among them. Scrollable cursors are always read-only.
Using a nonscrollable cursor, you cannot go back to a row you have already selected, and you cannot move more than one row at a time.
Sybase continues to support the default, forward-only cursor, but recommends using the more convenient and flexible scrollable cursor whenever you do not need to update a result set through a cursor.
For detailed information on the global variables, commands, and functions that support cursors, see the Reference Manual: Building Blocks and the Reference Manual: Commands.
