PostgreSQL 7.4 Documentation
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# FETCH

## Name

FETCH -- retrieve rows from a query using a cursor

## Synopsis

    FETCH [ direction { FROM | IN } ] cursorname

    where direction can be empty or one of:

        NEXT
        PRIOR
        FIRST
        LAST
        ABSOLUTE count
        RELATIVE count
        count
        ALL
        FORWARD
        FORWARD count
        FORWARD ALL
        BACKWARD
        BACKWARD count
        BACKWARD ALL

## Description

`FETCH` retrieves rows using a previously-created cursor.

A cursor has an associated position, which is used by `FETCH`. The cursor position can be before the first row of the query result, on any particular row of the result, or after the last row of the result. When created, a cursor is positioned before the first row. After fetching some rows, the cursor is positioned on the row most recently retrieved. If `FETCH` runs off the end of the available rows then the cursor is left positioned after the last row, or before the first row if fetching backward. `FETCH ALL` or `FETCH BACKWARD ALL` will always leave the cursor positioned after the last row or before the first row.

The forms NEXT, PRIOR, FIRST, LAST, ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE fetch a single row after moving the cursor appropriately. If there is no such row, an empty result is returned, and the cursor is left positioned before the first row or after the last row as appropriate.

The forms using FORWARD and BACKWARD retrieve the indicated number of rows moving in the forward or backward direction, leaving the cursor positioned on the last-returned row (or after/before all rows, if the count exceeds the number of rows available).

RELATIVE 0, FORWARD 0, and BACKWARD 0 all request fetching the current row without moving the cursor, that is, re-fetching the most recently fetched row. This will succeed unless the cursor is positioned before the first row or after the last row; in which case, no row is returned.

## Parameters

direction

  direction defines the fetch direction and number of rows to fetch. It can be one of the following:

  NEXT

    Fetch the next row. This is the default if direction is omitted.

  PRIOR

    Fetch the prior row.

  FIRST

    Fetch the first row of the query (same as ABSOLUTE 1).

  LAST

    Fetch the last row of the query (same as ABSOLUTE -1).

  ABSOLUTE count

    Fetch the count'th row of the query, or the abs(count)'th row from the end if count is negative. Position before first row or after last row if count is out of range; in particular, ABSOLUTE 0 positions before the first row.

  RELATIVE count

    Fetch the count'th succeeding row, or the abs(count)'th prior row if count is negative. RELATIVE 0 re-fetches the current row, if any.

  count

    Fetch the next count rows (same as FORWARD count).

  ALL

    Fetch all remaining rows (same as FORWARD ALL).

  FORWARD

    Fetch the next row (same as NEXT).

  FORWARD count

    Fetch the next count rows. FORWARD 0 re-fetches the current row.

  FORWARD ALL

    Fetch all remaining rows.

  BACKWARD

    Fetch the prior row (same as PRIOR).

  BACKWARD count

    Fetch the prior count rows (scanning backwards). BACKWARD 0 re-fetches the current row.

  BACKWARD ALL

    Fetch all prior rows (scanning backwards).

count

  count is a possibly-signed integer constant, determining the location or number of rows to fetch. For FORWARD and BACKWARD cases, specifying a negative count is equivalent to changing the sense of FORWARD and BACKWARD.

cursorname

  An open cursor's name.

## Outputs

On successful completion, a `FETCH` command returns a command tag of the form

    FETCH count

The count is the number of rows fetched (possibly zero). Note that in psql, the command tag will not actually be displayed, since psql displays the fetched rows instead.

## Notes

The cursor should be declared with the SCROLL option if one intends to use any variants of `FETCH` other than `FETCH NEXT` or `FETCH FORWARD` with a positive count. For simple queries PostgreSQL will allow backwards fetch from cursors not declared with SCROLL, but this behavior is best not relied on. If the cursor is declared with NO SCROLL, no backward fetches are allowed.

ABSOLUTE fetches are not any faster than navigating to the desired row with a relative move: the underlying implementation must traverse all the intermediate rows anyway. Negative absolute fetches are even worse: the query must be read to the end to find the last row, and then traversed backward from there. However, rewinding to the start of the query (as with FETCH ABSOLUTE 0) is fast.

Updating data via a cursor is currently not supported by PostgreSQL.

DECLARE is used to define a cursor. Use MOVE to change cursor position without retrieving data.

## Examples

The following example traverses a table using a cursor.

    BEGIN WORK;

    -- Set up a cursor:
    DECLARE liahona SCROLL CURSOR FOR SELECT * FROM films;

    -- Fetch the first 5 rows in the cursor liahona:
    FETCH FORWARD 5 FROM liahona;

     code  |          title          | did | date_prod  |   kind   |  len
    -------+-------------------------+-----+------------+----------+-------
     BL101 | The Third Man           | 101 | 1949-12-23 | Drama    | 01:44
     BL102 | The African Queen       | 101 | 1951-08-11 | Romantic | 01:43
     JL201 | Une Femme est une Femme | 102 | 1961-03-12 | Romantic | 01:25
     P_301 | Vertigo                 | 103 | 1958-11-14 | Action   | 02:08
     P_302 | Becket                  | 103 | 1964-02-03 | Drama    | 02:28

    -- Fetch the previous row:
    FETCH PRIOR FROM liahona;

     code  |  title  | did | date_prod  |  kind  |  len
    -------+---------+-----+------------+--------+-------
     P_301 | Vertigo | 103 | 1958-11-14 | Action | 02:08

    -- Close the cursor and end the transaction:
    CLOSE liahona;
    COMMIT WORK;

## Compatibility

The SQL standard defines `FETCH` for use in embedded SQL only. This variant of `FETCH` described here returns the data as if it were a `SELECT` result rather than placing it in host variables. Other than this point, `FETCH` is fully upward-compatible with the SQL standard.

The `FETCH` forms involving FORWARD and BACKWARD, as well as the forms FETCH count and FETCH ALL, in which FORWARD is implicit, are PostgreSQL extensions.

The SQL standard allows only FROM preceding the cursor name; the option to use IN is an extension.

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