Cursor verus while loop - what are the advantages/disadvantages of cursors?

database-cursor, sql-server, t-sql, while-loop

Solution

Some of these depends on the DBMS, but generally:

Pros:

Outperform loops when it comes to row-by-row processing

Works reasonably well with large datasets

Cons:

Don't scale as well

Use more server resources

Increases load on tempdb

Can cause leaks if used incorrectly (eg. Open without corresponding Close)

Problem

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