---------------- Cursor variables ---------------- Function: Allow usage of explicit or implicit cursors without needing the use of INTO clause in FETCH and FOR SELECT. An explicit cursor automatically becomes a cursor variable. An implicit cursor (FOR SELECT) needs the {AS CURSOR <name>} clause to become a cursor variable. Author: Adriano dos Santos Fernandes <adrianosf@gmail.com> Dmitry Yemanov <dimitr@users.sf.net> Syntax rules: 1) To unambiguously access a cursor variable, the cursor name should be prefixed by a colon. 2) A cursor variable may be accessed without a colon prefix, but in this case, depending on the scope of contexts present in a query, the name may resolve to a query context intead of a cursor. 3) It's allowed to use the colon prefix with trigger's NEW and OLD contexts. 4) Cursor variables are read-only. 5) A FOR SELECT without AS CURSOR needs the use of INTO, while with AS CURSOR it's not required, but still allowed. With FETCH, INTO is now optional. 6) It's allowed now to use the colon prefix when assigning to variables or NEW's fields. 7) Reading from a cursor variable returns the current field values. That means an UPDATE (with WHERE CURRENT OF) also updates the fields for subsequent reads. And DELETE (with WHERE CURRENT OF) makes subsequent reads to return NULL. Examples: 1. execute block returns (o char(31)) as declare c cursor for ( select rdb$relation_name name from rdb$relations ); begin open c; while (1 = 1) do begin fetch c; if (row_count = 0) then leave; o = :c.name; suspend; end close c; end 2. execute block returns (o char(31)) as begin for select rdb$relation_name name from rdb$relations as cursor c do begin o = :c.name; suspend; end end 3. execute block returns (o1 char(31), o2 char(31)) as begin for select rdb$relation_name from rdb$relations where rdb$relation_name = 'RDB$RELATIONS' as cursor c do begin for select :c.rdb$relation_name x1, -- prefixed, resolves to C cursor c.rdb$relation_name x2 -- unprefixed, resolved to this query rdb$relations (c) from rdb$relations c where rdb$relation_name = 'RDB$DATABASE' as cursor d do begin o1 = :d.x1; o2 = :d.x2; suspend; end end end