Question

Let’s say I’ve got a trigger like this:

CREATE TRIGGER trigger1
   ON [dbo].[table1] 
   AFTER UPDATE
AS 
BEGIN               
    --declare some vars
    DECLARE @Col1 SMALLINT 
    DECLARE @Col1 TINYINT 

    --declare cursor        
    DECLARE Cursor1 CURSOR FOR 
    SELECT Col1, Col2 FROM INSERTED             

    --do the job
    OPEN Cursor1
    FETCH NEXT FROM Cursor1 INTO @Col1, @Col2

    WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
    BEGIN
        IF ...something...
        BEGIN           
            EXEC myProc1 @param1 = @Col1, @Param2 = @Col2
        END             
        ELSE
        IF ...something else...
        BEGIN           
            EXEC myProc2 @param1 = @Col1, @Param2 = @Col2
        END     

        FETCH NEXT FROM Cursor1 INTO @Col1, @Col2               
    END

    --clean it up       
    CLOSE Cursor1
    DEALLOCATE Cursor1                  
END

I want to be sure that Cursor1 is always closed and deallocated. Even myProc1 or myProc2 fails.

Shall I use try/catch block?

Answer 1

Yes, use TRY/CATCH but make sure you deallocate etc after.
Unfortunately, there is no finally in SQL Server.

However, I suggest wrapping this in another try/catch

CREATE TRIGGER trigger1 ON [dbo].[table1] AFTER UPDATE
AS 
BEGIN                           
    --declare some vars
    DECLARE @Col1 SMALLINT, @Col1 TINYINT 

    BEGIN TRY
        --declare cursor            
        DECLARE Cursor1 CURSOR FOR 
        SELECT Col1, Col2 FROM INSERTED                     

        --do the job
        OPEN Cursor1
        FETCH NEXT FROM Cursor1 INTO @Col1, @Col2

        WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
        BEGIN
            IF ...something...
                    EXEC myProc1 @param1 = @Col1, @Param2 = @Col2
            ELSE
            IF ...something else...
                    EXEC myProc2 @param1 = @Col1, @Param2 = @Col2

            FETCH NEXT FROM Cursor1 INTO @Col1, @Col2                               
        END
    END TRY
    BEGIN CATCH
        --do what you have to
    END CATCH

    BEGIN TRY
        --clean it up               
        CLOSE Cursor1
        DEALLOCATE Cursor1                                  
    END TRY
    BEGIN CATCH
        --do nothing
    END CATCH
END

Whether a cursor in a trigger is a good idea is a different matter…