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Databases Intermediate

What is Cursor?

A database object that enables row-by-row processing of query results, useful for operations that cannot be done in bulk.

Cursors provide a way to iterate over query results one row at a time, rather than fetching everything at once. They are useful when processing each row requires complex logic or when result sets are too large for memory.

However, cursors are generally slower than set-based operations. Most SQL operations should use standard SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE statements. Cursors are mainly useful in stored procedures and migration scripts that need row-level processing.

Related Terms

Database Connection Pooling
A technique that maintains a cache of database connections for reuse, reducing the overhead of creating new connections.
Write-Ahead Log (WAL)
A technique where changes are first written to a log before being applied to the database, ensuring crash recovery and data integrity.
Full-Text Search
A technique for searching natural language text in databases using word stemming, ranking, and relevance scoring.
EXPLAIN ANALYZE
A PostgreSQL command that shows the execution plan of a query along with actual runtime statistics for performance tuning.
Stored Procedure
A precompiled collection of SQL statements stored in the database that can be executed as a single unit.
Materialized View
A database object that stores the precomputed result of a query, offering faster reads at the cost of periodic refresh.
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