September 26, 2024: PostgreSQL 17 Released!
Supported Versions: Current (17) / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12
Development Versions: devel
Unsupported versions: 11 / 10 / 9.6 / 9.5 / 9.4 / 9.3 / 9.2 / 9.1 / 9.0 / 8.4 / 8.3 / 8.2 / 8.1 / 8.0 / 7.4
This documentation is for an unsupported version of PostgreSQL.
You may want to view the same page for the current version, or one of the other supported versions listed above instead.

SPI_cursor_open

Name

SPI_cursor_open -- set up a cursor using a plan created with SPI_prepare

Synopsis

Portal SPI_cursor_open(const char * name, SPIPlanPtr plan,
                       Datum * values, const char * nulls,
                       bool read_only)

Description

SPI_cursor_open sets up a cursor (internally, a portal) that will execute a plan prepared by SPI_prepare. The parameters have the same meanings as the corresponding parameters to SPI_execute_plan.

Using a cursor instead of executing the plan directly has two benefits. First, the result rows can be retrieved a few at a time, avoiding memory overrun for queries that return many rows. Second, a portal can outlive the current procedure (it can, in fact, live to the end of the current transaction). Returning the portal name to the procedure's caller provides a way of returning a row set as result.

The passed-in parameter data will be copied into the cursor's portal, so it can be freed while the cursor still exists.

Arguments

const char * name

name for portal, or NULL to let the system select a name

SPIPlanPtr plan

execution plan (returned by SPI_prepare)

Datum * values

An array of actual parameter values. Must have same length as the plan's number of arguments.

const char * nulls

An array describing which parameters are null. Must have same length as the plan's number of arguments. n indicates a null value (entry in values will be ignored); a space indicates a nonnull value (entry in values is valid).

If nulls is NULL then SPI_cursor_open assumes that no parameters are null.

bool read_only

true for read-only execution

Return Value

Pointer to portal containing the cursor. Note there is no error return convention; any error will be reported via elog.