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What can be used instead of cursor?
Temporary tables have been in use for a long time and provide an excellent way to replace cursors for large data sets. Just like table variables, temporary tables can hold the result set so that we can perform the necessary operations by processing it with an iterating algorithm such as a ‘while’ loop.
What is the replacement of cursor in SQL Server?
To move the cursor to next row we again use FETCH NEXT. A better approach is to use a loop and call FETCH NEXT within the loop so that the cursor can iterate over all the rows. The @@FETCH_STATUS returns 0 as long as there are more rows in a set of records.
How to replace a cursor in SQL Server?
SET @theCount = @theCount + 1 END PRINT ‘Done’ Well, often an app dev used to procedural programming will – out of habit – try to do everything procedurally, even in SQL. Most often, a SELECT with the right paramters might do – or maybe you’re dealing with an UPDATE statement.
Is it possible to avoid using SQL cursors?
These were the examples of some scenarios in which it is difficult to avoid using SQL cursors due to the nature of the requirement. H owever, it is still possible to find an alternative approach. There are two most common alternatives for SQL cursors, so let’s look at each one of them in detail.
Can a cursor be replaced with a joins?
Unfortunately, cursors are extremely slow and so where possible should be replaced with JOINS. To populate a cursor, database tables are iterated on row-by-row basis rather than in sets.
How to create a cursor to rename a table?
Let’s create a SQL cursor to rename all tables in the sample database by adding ‘_Backup’ to each table’s name while also ensuring that table s containing ‘_Backup’ in their name will not be renamed again by runn ing the following code: N ow, Press F5 in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) to run the script and see the results: