A cursor is like a pointer that points to consecutive records in a table. The ABL uses cursors to keep track of where it is in a table; for example, when it processes FOR EACH statements. Suppose that you are reading records from the customer table using the custnum index, and your current record is customer number 50. This means that ABL has a cursor positioned at custnum 50. Note that ABL maintains cursor positioning across queries.

The DataServer allows applications that access MS SQL Server data sources to imitate OpenEdge cursor behavior for FIND cursors. FOR EACH and OPEN QUERY statements do not retain cursor position across other queries or against a FIND statement.

This section discusses the following cursor-related activities:

For details about firehose and fast forward-only cursors, see Firehose, Firehose block, and Fast Forward-Only Cursors.