Cursor Scope

A cursor’s existence depends on its scope, which refers to the context in which the cursor is used: within a user session, within a stored procedure, or within a trigger.

Within a user session, the cursor exists only until a user ends the session. After the user logs off, SAP ASE deallocates the cursors created in that session. The cursor does not exist for additional sessions that other users start.

A cursor name must be unique within a given scope. SAP ASE detects name conflicts within a particular scope only during runtime. A stored procedure or trigger can define two cursors with the same name if only one is executed. For example, the following stored procedure works because only one names_crsr cursor is defined in its scope:

create procedure proc2 @flag int
as
if @flag > 0
    declare names_crsr cursor
    for select au_fname from authors
else
    declare names_crsr cursor
    for select au_lname from authors
return