OPEN CURSOR statement, FETCH statement, CLOSE statement

[frank.schimmelpfennig]

Hi,

I am trying to lern the handling of  cursors: I wrote a procedure in which a cursor is
declared (see example below).

   If I use OPEN CURSOR statement I get a -5015 error (Syntax error or access
violation;-5015 POS(1020) Missing keyword:THEN,FETCH,DO,CLOSE,CALL,WHILE,SE). If I leave
out the OPEN CURSOR statement the DBMS accepts the procedure and it seems to work as it
   should.

   I studied the documentation but I do not get it! Don't I have to open the cursor
(explicitly) before fetching the rows? When do I have to use the OPEN CURSOR statement?

   If I leave out the CLOSE statement there seems to be no difference.

   So long I thought cursor handling functions this way (simplified): DECLARE CURSOR -
OPEN CURSOR - FETCH DATA - PROCESS DATA - CLOSE CURSOR

   Is there someone who is able to explain this to me?

  <...>
  DECLARE <cursor_name> CURSOR
    FOR
      SELECT <column_list>
        FROM <table_owner>.<table_name>;

  OPEN <cursor_name>;
    FETCH FIRST <cursor_name> INTO <parameter_list>;
    WHILE $RC <> 100 DO
      BEGIN
        <...>
        FETCH NEXT <cursor_name> INTO <parameter_list>;
      END;
  CLOSE <cursor_name>;
  <...>


Thank You in advance!
Frank Schimmelpfennig

PHILIPS Semiconductors Hamburg
ATO-PICTOH  IT&DataSupport
Tel.: [phone], Fax: -3020