Prepared statements
Each time a statement is sent to a database, the database server must perform a series of steps.
Cursor usage
When you execute a query in an application, the result set consists of several rows. In general, you do not know how many rows the application is going to receive before you execute the query.
Cursor types
The various programming interfaces do not support all aspects of database cursors. The terminology may also be different. The mappings between cursors and the options available to for each programming interface is explained in the following material.
Cursor attributes
Any cursor, once opened, has an associated result set. The cursor is kept open for a length of time. During that time, the result set associated with the cursor may be changed, either through the cursor itself or, subject to isolation level requirements, by other transactions.
Result set descriptors
Some applications build SQL statements that cannot be completely specified in the application. Sometimes statements are dependent on a user response before the application knows exactly what information to retrieve, such as when a reporting application allows a user to select which columns to display.
Transactions in applications
Transactions are sets of atomic SQL statements. Either all statements in the transaction are executed, or none.
