---
title: "pg_cursors"
id: view-pg-cursors
pg_version: "20devel"
---

<a id="view-pg-cursors"></a>

## 53.7. pg_cursors

The pg_cursors view lists the cursors that are currently available. Cursors can be defined in several ways: 
-  via the [`DECLARE`](sql-declare.md) statement in SQL 
-  via the Bind message in the frontend/backend protocol, as described in [Section 54.2.3](protocol-flow.md#protocol-flow-ext-query) 
-  via the Server Programming Interface (SPI), as described in [Section 45.1](spi-interface.md) 

 The pg_cursors view displays cursors created by any of these means. Cursors only exist for the duration of the transaction that defines them, unless they have been declared `WITH HOLD`. Therefore non-holdable cursors are only present in the view until the end of their creating transaction. 
> [!NOTE]
> Cursors are used internally to implement some of the components of PostgreSQL, such as procedural languages. Therefore, the pg_cursors view might include cursors that have not been explicitly created by the user.

 

**pg_cursors Columns**

| Column Type | Description | 
| --- | --- |
| `name` `text` | The name of the cursor |
| `statement` `text` | The verbatim query string submitted to declare this cursor |
| `is_holdable` `bool` | `true` if the cursor is holdable (that is, it can be accessed after the transaction that declared the cursor has committed); `false` otherwise |
| `is_binary` `bool` | `true` if the cursor was declared `BINARY`; `false` otherwise |
| `is_scrollable` `bool` | `true` if the cursor is scrollable (that is, it allows rows to be retrieved in a nonsequential manner); `false` otherwise |
| `creation_time` `timestamptz` | The time at which the cursor was declared |

The pg_cursors view is read-only.