Cursor Behaviors
Applies to: 
SQL Server
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
ODBC supports the ISO options for specifying the behavior of cursors by specifying their scrollability and sensitivity. These behaviors are specified by setting the SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SCROLLABLE and SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SENSITIVITY options on a call to SQLSetStmtAttr. The SQL Server Native Client ODBC driver implements these options by requesting server cursors with the following characteristics.
| Cursor behavior settings | Server cursor characteristics requested |
|---|---|
| SQL_SCROLLABLE and SQL_SENSITIVE | Keyset-driven cursor and version-based optimistic concurrency |
| SQL_SCROLLABLE and SQL_INSENSITIVE | Static cursor and read-only concurrency |
| SQL_SCROLLABLE and SQL_UNSPECIFIED | Static cursor and read-only concurrency |
| SQL_NONSCROLLABLE and SQL_SENSITIVE | Forward-only cursor and version-based optimistic concurrency |
| SQL_NONSCROLLABLE and SQL_INSENSITIVE | Default result set (forward-only, read-only) |
| SQL_NONSCROLLABLE and SQL_UNSPECIFIED | Default result set (forward-only, read-only) |
Version-based optimistic concurrency requires a timestamp column in the underlying table. If version-based optimistic concurrency control is requested on a table that does not have a timestamp column, the server uses values-based optimistic concurrency.
Scrollability
When SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SCROLLABLE is set to SQL_SCROLLABLE, the cursor supports all the different values for the FetchOrientation parameter of SQLFetchScroll. When SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SCROLLABLE is set to SQL_NONSCROLLABLE, the cursor only supports a FetchOrientation value of SQL_FETCH_NEXT.
Sensitivity
When SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SENSITIVITY is set to SQL_SENSITIVE, the cursor reflects data modifications made by the current user or committed by other users. When SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_SENSITIVITY is set to SQL_INSENSITIVE, the cursor does not reflect data modifications.