Set-based versus Cursors 1

[JohnBates]

hello everyone,

Several of you, SQLSister and others, have said that set-based processing is far better than using cursors.

Can anyone give me an example of what set-based code or technique would lokk like ?

Thanks, John

 

[JamesLean]

Set-based just means using an INSERT/UPDATE etc on a set of data at a time, rather than cycling through and executing it once for each row. You use set-based processing all the time, eg:

UPDATE t
SET c1 = 123
WHERE id = 1

This would be far better than using a cursor to loop through each row, checking the id and updating one at a time.

--James