Cursor in sql server 2005

What Is Cursor

The typical SQL Commands operate on all row in the set at one time, but sometimes we need to manipulate data in a set on row - by - row basis, then the role of cursor comes in SQL. Cursor is a database object used to manipulate data in a set on a row-by-row basis by an application. 

The basic syntax of a cursor is:

 -- variable declaration

DECLARE @AuthorID char(11)

-- cursor declaration 

DECLARE c1 CURSOR READ_ONLY -- c1 is the cursor name

FOR

SELECT au_id  -- column name from which the values to be fetched

FROM authors -- table name on which cursor applies

OPEN c1  -- open the cursor

FETCH NEXT FROM c1  -- fetching row from table using cursor

INTO @AuthorID      -- column from which values to be get

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 -- cheking the fetch status if 0 then row fetched 

                         -- else value is negative

BEGIN

 -- your code goes here like printing the author id got form cursor

        PRINT @AuthorID

        FETCH NEXT FROM c1 -- fetching next row from table using cursor

        INTO @AuthorID

END

CLOSE c1           -- closing cursor

DEALLOCATE c1      -- deallocating cursor from memory