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Asked: 2026-06-06T01:24:02+00:00

I’m not sure when it is appropriate to use a cursor. I need to

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I’m not sure when it is appropriate to use a cursor.

I need to send out emails after a certain stored procedure is ran that updates some tables. So if 

table1.field1 = "value" and 
   (select count(*) 
      from table1 join table2 
        on table2.table1_id = table1.id) > 20

then an email needs to be sent out for everything in table1 that meets those conditions. And in the email I need to include table1.field2 and table2.field3 and so on…

The only way I can think to do this is get my dataset of rows in table1 that meet these conditions and then use a cursor to go through it. I’ve never worked with sending emails from SQL Server before and I don’t know my options… I have never used a cursor before (although I do understand how) because I learned to shy away from them.

Thanks.

Edit:
With the while loop: So… I probably want to shove all the info i need into a temp table (select * from table1 where (conditions)) and then start a while loop that goes through each row of the resulting data set in my temp table. (WHILE i = 1 to (select count(*) from #temp) / assemble e-mail send e-mail / next)… then what is the best way to reference/point to which row of #temp I should be using for each loop iteration? I could just give #temp an identity(1,1) or use row_number()… right? I guess? It seems like I’m just trying to program my own cursor by doing this, though? And let’s say we set @subject = (select ‘Site ‘ & field2 & ‘ has a value of ‘ & field1 from #temp where temp_id_or_row_number = @i) and then increment @i for each loop…?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I have used something similar to this article
    I used to build up straight html and then use that in an html formatted mail using sp_send_dbmail.
    These stored procedures can get messy

    I never used cursors – had several stored procs which had WHILE loops sending out multiple emails 

    WHILE (condition)
   begin
   end

    Here’s a full example; hope it helps:

    /*
drop table #the_table
drop table #Emails
*/
create table #the_table 
( [Email] varchar(50),
  [Date] datetime,
  [Amount] decimal(12, 2))

insert into #the_table
values
( 'example@googlemail.co.uk', '2012-1-1', 10),
( 'example@googlemail.co.uk', '2012-1-3', 10),
( 'foo@bar.co.uk', '2012-1-3', 20),
( 'foo@bar.co.uk', '2012-1-5', 10)


  --get a list of email addresses
SELECT   
    Email
    , ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Email]) AS [Counter] 
INTO    #Emails
FROM    #the_table
GROUP BY Email


DECLARE @html VARCHAR(8000)
DECLARE @Recipient VARCHAR(100)

DECLARE @row INT = 1

WHILE @row <= (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #Emails)
BEGIN
    SET @Recipient= (SELECT [Email] FROM #Emails WHERE [Counter] = @row)


      --start building the html string
    SELECT @html = '<html><p>Hello World.</p>'
    SELECT @html = @html + '<p><table border="1"><tr><th>Date</th><th>Amount</th></tr>' 

    SELECT
        @html = 
            @html + 
            ('<tr><td>' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(6), [Date])                           
            + '</td><td>$' + LEFT(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), CONVERT(MONEY,Amount),1), LEN(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), CONVERT(MONEY,Amount),1))-3) + '</td></tr>')
    FROM    #the_table
    WHERE   [Email] = @Recipient
    SELECT @html = @html + '</table></p>'   

      --finish building the html string 
    SELECT @html = @html + '<p></p></html>'


    DECLARE @mySubject VARCHAR(100)
    SET @mySubject = 'TESTING 1-2-3'

    EXEC msdb..sp_send_dbmail
        @recipients = @Recipient  
        , @subject = @mySubject
        , @body_format = 'html'
        , @body = @html 


    SET @Row = @Row +1

END
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