SQL in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Name

CLOSE CURSOR Statement

The CLOSE CURSOR statement closes a server-side cursor previously created with a DECLARE CURSOR statement.

Platform	Command
MySQL	Supported
Oracle	Supported
PostgreSQL	Supported
SQL Server	Supported, with variations

SQL2003 Syntax

CLOSE cursor_name

Keywords

cursor_name

Names a cursor previously created with the DECLARE CURSOR statement.

Rules at a Glance

The CLOSE statement closes a cursor and destroys the cursor result set. All the database platforms release any locks that were held by the cursor, though this is not specified in the ANSI standard. For example:

CLOSE author_names_cursor;

Programming Tips and Gotchas

You can also close a cursor implicitly using a COMMIT statement or, for cursors defined with WITH HOLD, using a ROLLBACK statement.

MySQL

MySQL supports the ANSI-standard form of the statement.

Oracle

Oracle supports the ANSI-standard form of the statement.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL supports the ANSI-standard syntax. PostgreSQL issues an implicit CLOSE statement for every open cursor when a transaction is ended with a COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement.

SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server supports the ANSI-standard syntax, and an additional GLOBAL keyword:

CLOSE [GLOBAL] cursor_name

where:

GLOBAL

Identifies the previously defined cursor as a global cursor.

In the ANSI-standard behavior, closing a cursor destroys the cursor result set. Locking is a physical feature of each database platform and thus not a part of the ANSI SQL definition. However, all the database platforms covered here drop ...