What Is a Cursor?
A cursor is a SQL resultset that enables you to perform row-oriented operations on the resultset. (This differs from standard SQL resultsets, which return all the rows in the resultset.) This means that you can process data row by row. With SQL Server's cursors, you can navigate forward and backward through the resultset. You can really exploit the power of cursors when you combine them with the EXEC command and a string variable substitution.
Cursors can be used in the following locations:
In a control-of-flow batch
Within a stored procedure
Within a trigger
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