53.7. pg_cursors

pg_cursors

The pg_cursors view lists the cursors that are currently available. Cursors can be defined in several ways:

via the DECLARE statement in SQL
via the Bind message in the frontend/backend protocol, as described in Extended Query
via the Server Programming Interface (SPI), as described in Interface Functions

The pg_cursors view displays cursors created by any of these means. Cursors only exist for the duration of the transaction that defines them, unless they have been declared WITH HOLD. Therefore non-holdable cursors are only present in the view until the end of their creating transaction.

Cursors are used internally to implement some of the components of PostgreSQL, such as procedural languages. Therefore, the pg_cursors view might include cursors that have not been explicitly created by the user.

Column Type Description
name `text` The name of the cursor
statement `text` The verbatim query string submitted to declare this cursor
is_holdable `bool` `true` if the cursor is holdable (that is, it can be accessed after the transaction that declared the cursor has committed); `false` otherwise
is_binary `bool` `true` if the cursor was declared `BINARY`; `false` otherwise
is_scrollable `bool` `true` if the cursor is scrollable (that is, it allows rows to be retrieved in a nonsequential manner); `false` otherwise
creation_time `timestamptz` The time at which the cursor was declared

Column Type

Description

name text

The name of the cursor

statement text

The verbatim query string submitted to declare this cursor

is_holdable bool

true if the cursor is holdable (that is, it can be accessed after the transaction that declared the cursor has committed); false otherwise

is_binary bool

true if the cursor was declared BINARY; false otherwise

is_scrollable bool

true if the cursor is scrollable (that is, it allows rows to be retrieved in a nonsequential manner); false otherwise

creation_time timestamptz

The time at which the cursor was declared

: pg_cursors Columns

The pg_cursors view is read-only.