Re: cursor looping - best practices?

On 15 Jun, 17:36, spacemar..._at_mailinator.com wrote:
> On Jun 15, 11:11 am, sybra..._at_hccnet.nl wrote:
>
> > Obviously this is a version dependent question.
>
> not so obvious at all -- otherwise i would have specified. i was
> unaware of that difference between version. thanks.
>
> > I always failed to see why people posting here assume everyone here
> > is a mindreader and/or keeps track of versions in use.
>
> perhaps i can offer you some insight. i come from the MS SQL world,
> and little has changed over the years... what i learned in 2000 is
> still what i use today in MS SQL, little has changed.

Hmmm. Except for: partition schemes, mirroring, SSAS 2005, Intergration Services, Service Broker, SQL window functions, CTEs, Management Studio, T-SQL error handling, SQLCMD, SMO, SQL Native Client, encryption, schemas, synonyms, new index syntax, high availability improvements... I guess if you leave those out then not much has changed. Ah, sorry I forgot some other T-SQL stuff: CLR, userdefined  aggregates, data types, XML types, XQUERY, ...

>
> i cant speak for others, but thats why when i ask about a best
> practice its not obviously apparent to me that there may be dramatic
> differences between what people are actively using in production.
>

Big differences between versions in both in Oracle and SQL Server. Always be clear about what version you are using.

Tom Kyte on cursors in Oracle:

"you use a cursor if and only if and only when you cannot do it in a single sql statement. a cursor gives you the ability to procedurally, row by row by slow row, process the data. you use them only when nothing else is available to you."

http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:12685600547901

--
David Portas