Re: Which is beter a cursor or a for loop?

From: sundeep maini <sundeep_maini_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 10:35:25 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.00558E70.20030225103525@fatcity.com>

Proof of pudding is in eating.... Whip up a couple of examples and check out the timings. I suspect the CURSOR FOR LOOPS would run faster.

I recall a similar mention by Tom Kyte in Oracle magazine while answering a question about explicit and implicit cusrsors. Unlike the conventional wisdom (a.k.a Feuerstein's recommendation in his best selling books) to use explicit cursors, he showed via an example how and why the implicit cursors are better (Key difference was the processing PL/SQL had to do for the explicit cursor).

It is pretty much the same for FOR LOOP (it opens, closes and fetches from the cursor for you) and is likly to run faster.

• Sundeep --- Denham Eva <EvaD_at_TFMC.co.za> wrote:
  > Hello,
  >
  > I was just asked by one of our developers which is beter to use:-
  > a cursor or a for loop?
  > I must admit I am not sure....
  >
  > Anyway the specific piece of code in discussion is similar to the
  > following....
  >
  > FOR X IN (SELECT X FROM TABLE_NAME
  > WHERE COL1 = 'Something'))
  > LOOP
  > Do a whole lot of stuff in database here......
  > LOOP END;
  >
  > I would guess that the cursor would follow similar execution
  > criteria but
  > using
  > the cursor syntax.
  >
  > Any ideas?
  >
  > TIA
  > regards
  > Denham Eva
  > Oracle DBA
  > The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
  > - B. F. Skinner
  >
  >
  >

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Sundeep Maini
Consultant
Currently on Assignement at Caterpillar Peoria sundeep_maini_k_at_cat.com

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Received on Tue Feb 25 2003 - 12:35:25 CST