Static Cursors (Database Engine)

The complete result set of a static cursor is built in tempdb when the cursor is opened. A static cursor always displays the result set as it was when the cursor was opened.

The cursor does not reflect any changes made in the database that affect either the membership of the result set or changes to the values in the columns of the rows that make up the result set. A static cursor does not display new rows inserted in the database after the cursor was opened, even if they match the search conditions of the cursor SELECT statement. If rows making up the result set are updated by other users, the new data values are not displayed in the static cursor. The static cursor displays rows deleted from the database after the cursor was opened. No UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE operations are reflected in a static cursor (unless the cursor is closed and reopened), not even modifications made using the same connection that opened the cursor.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 static cursors are always read-only.

Because the result set of a static cursor is stored in a work table in tempdb, the size of the rows in the result set cannot exceed the maximum row size for a SQL Server table.

Transact-SQL uses the term insensitive for static cursors. Some database APIs identify them as snapshot cursors.