Using Server Cursors

If an ODBC application sets any of the ODBC cursor attributes to anything other than the defaults, then the Microsoft® SQL Server™ ODBC driver requests the server to implement an API server cursor of the same type. The use of API server cursors frees memory on the client and can significantly reduce network traffic between the client and server.

A potential drawback of API server cursors is that they currently do not support all SQL statements. API server cursors cannot be used to execute:

• Batches or stored procedures that return multiple result sets.
• SELECT statements that contain COMPUTE, COMPUTE BY, FOR BROWSE, or INTO clauses.
• An EXECUTE statement referencing a remote stored procedure.

When connected to SQL Server 7.0, attempting to execute a statement with these characteristics using a server cursor results in the cursor being converted to a default result set. When connected to earlier versions of SQL Server, the attempt results in an error.

See Also

Cursor Implementations