Implicit Cursor

The system automatically sets implicit cursors for non-query statements, such as ALTER and DROP, and creates work areas for these statements. These implicit cursors are named SQL, which is defined by the system.

Overview

Implicit cursor operations, such as definition, opening, value-grant, and closing, are automatically performed by the system. Users can use only the attributes of implicit cursors to complete operations. The data stored in the work area of an implicit cursor is the latest SQL statement, and is not related to the user-defined explicit cursors.

Format call: SQL%

INSERT, UPDATE, DROP, and SELECT statements do not require defined cursors.

Attributes

An implicit cursor has the following attributes:

SQL%FOUND: Boolean attribute, which returns TRUE if the last fetch returns a row.
SQL%NOTFOUND: Boolean attribute, which works opposite to the SQL%FOUND attribute.
SQL%ROWCOUNT: numeric attribute, which returns the number of records fetched from the cursor.
SQL%ISOPEN: Boolean attribute, whose value is always FALSE. Close implicit cursors immediately after an SQL statement is executed.