7:fetch
From Linux Man Pages
FETCH - retrieve rows from a query using a cursor
Contents |
SYNOPSIS
FETCH [ direction { FROM | IN } ] cursorname
where direction can be empty or one of:
NEXT
PRIOR
FIRST
LAST
ABSOLUTE count
RELATIVE count
count
ALL
FORWARD
FORWARD count
FORWARD ALL
BACKWARD
BACKWARD count
BACKWARD ALL
DESCRIPTION
FETCH retrieves rows using a previously-created cursor.
A cursor has an associated position, which is used by FETCH. The cursor position can be before the first row of
the query result, on any particular row of the result, or after the last row of the result. When created, a cur-
sor is positioned before the first row. After fetching some rows, the cursor is positioned on the row most
recently retrieved. If FETCH runs off the end of the available rows then the cursor is left positioned after the
last row, or before the first row if fetching backward. FETCH ALL or FETCH BACKWARD ALL will always leave the
cursor positioned after the last row or before the first row.
The forms NEXT, PRIOR, FIRST, LAST, ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE fetch a single row after moving the cursor appropriately.
If there is no such row, an empty result is returned, and the cursor is left positioned before the first row or
after the last row as appropriate.
The forms using FORWARD and BACKWARD retrieve the indicated number of rows moving in the forward or backward
direction, leaving the cursor positioned on the last-returned row (or after/before all rows, if the count exceeds
the number of rows available).
RELATIVE 0, FORWARD 0, and BACKWARD 0 all request fetching the current row without moving the cursor, that is,
re-fetching the most recently fetched row. This will succeed unless the cursor is positioned before the first row
or after the last row; in which case, no row is returned.
PARAMETERS
direction
direction defines the fetch direction and number of rows to fetch. It can be one of the following:
NEXT Fetch the next row. This is the default if direction is omitted.
PRIOR Fetch the prior row.
FIRST Fetch the first row of the query (same as ABSOLUTE 1).
LAST Fetch the last row of the query (same as ABSOLUTE -1).
ABSOLUTE count
Fetch the count'th row of the query, or the abs(count)'th row from the end if count is negative.
Position before first row or after last row if count is out of range; in particular, ABSOLUTE 0
positions before the first row.
RELATIVE count
Fetch the count'th succeeding row, or the abs(count)'th prior row if count is negative. RELATIVE 0
re-fetches the current row, if any.
count Fetch the next count rows (same as FORWARD count).
ALL Fetch all remaining rows (same as FORWARD ALL).
FORWARD
Fetch the next row (same as NEXT).
FORWARD count
Fetch the next count rows. FORWARD 0 re-fetches the current row.
FORWARD ALL
Fetch all remaining rows.
BACKWARD
Fetch the prior row (same as PRIOR).
BACKWARD count
Fetch the prior count rows (scanning backwards). BACKWARD 0 re-fetches the current row.
BACKWARD ALL
Fetch all prior rows (scanning backwards).
count count is a possibly-signed integer constant, determining the location or number of rows to fetch. For FOR-
WARD and BACKWARD cases, specifying a negative count is equivalent to changing the sense of FORWARD and
BACKWARD.
cursorname
An open cursor's name.
OUTPUTS
On successful completion, a FETCH command returns a command tag of the form
FETCH count
The count is the number of rows fetched (possibly zero). Note that in psql, the command tag will not actually be
displayed, since psql displays the fetched rows instead.
NOTES
The cursor should be declared with the SCROLL option if one intends to use any variants of FETCH other than FETCH
NEXT or FETCH FORWARD with a positive count. For simple queries PostgreSQL will allow backwards fetch from cur-
sors not declared with SCROLL, but this behavior is best not relied on. If the cursor is declared with NO SCROLL,
no backward fetches are allowed.
ABSOLUTE fetches are not any faster than navigating to the desired row with a relative move: the underlying
implementation must traverse all the intermediate rows anyway. Negative absolute fetches are even worse: the
query must be read to the end to find the last row, and then traversed backward from there. However, rewinding to
the start of the query (as with FETCH ABSOLUTE 0) is fast.
Updating data via a cursor is currently not supported by PostgreSQL.
DECLARE [[[7:declare|declare(7)]]] is used to define a cursor. Use MOVE [[[7:move|move(7)]]] to change cursor position without retrieving
data.
EXAMPLES
The following example traverses a table using a cursor.
BEGIN WORK;
-- Set up a cursor:
DECLARE liahona SCROLL CURSOR FOR SELECT * FROM films;
-- Fetch the first 5 rows in the cursor liahona:
FETCH FORWARD 5 FROM liahona;
code | title | did | date_prod | kind | len
-------+-------------------------+-----+------------+----------+-------
BL101 | The Third Man | 101 | 1949-12-23 | Drama | 01:44
BL102 | The African Queen | 101 | 1951-08-11 | Romantic | 01:43
JL201 | Une Femme est une Femme | 102 | 1961-03-12 | Romantic | 01:25
P_301 | Vertigo | 103 | 1958-11-14 | Action | 02:08
P_302 | Becket | 103 | 1964-02-03 | Drama | 02:28
-- Fetch the previous row:
FETCH PRIOR FROM liahona;
code | title | did | date_prod | kind | len
-------+---------+-----+------------+--------+-------
P_301 | Vertigo | 103 | 1958-11-14 | Action | 02:08
-- Close the cursor and end the transaction:
CLOSE liahona;
COMMIT WORK;
COMPATIBILITY
The SQL standard defines FETCH for use in embedded SQL only. The variant of FETCH described here returns the data
as if it were a SELECT result rather than placing it in host variables. Other than this point, FETCH is fully
upward-compatible with the SQL standard.
The FETCH forms involving FORWARD and BACKWARD, as well as the forms FETCH count and FETCH ALL, in which FORWARD
is implicit, are PostgreSQL extensions.
The SQL standard allows only FROM preceding the cursor name; the option to use IN is an extension.
RELATED
CLOSE [[[7:close|close(7)]]], DECLARE [declare(l)], MOVE [move(l)]
SQL - Language Statements 2005-11-05 FETCH()