Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals, The

Appropriate Cursor Use

A word of advice: Use cursors only when you have to. That may seem a little simplistic or overly broad, but I think most seasoned Transact-SQL developers would agree that using cursors should be near the bottom of your list of coding techniques. Instead, try to find a solution that leverages Transact-SQL's ability to work with sets of data to solve your problems. That's what it was designed to do; that's what it does best. Though cursors are an easy concept for beginners to grasp, cursor overuse/misuse is a major source of performance problems with most RDBMSs, including SQL Server.

This isn't to say that cursor use is taboo or that all cursor users are headed for a fiery afterlife. If you program long enough in Transact-SQL, ...