Declare an insert cursor

To create an insert cursor, declare a cursor to be for an INSERT statement instead of a SELECT statement. You cannot use such a cursor to fetch rows of data; you can use it only to insert them.

When you open an insert cursor, a buffer is created in memory to hold a block of rows. The buffer receives rows of data as the program produces them; then they are passed to the database server in a block when the buffer is full. The buffer reduces the amount of communication between the program and the database server, and it lets the database server insert the rows with less difficulty. As a result, the insertions go faster.

The buffer is always made large enough to hold at least two rows of inserted values. It is large enough to hold more than two rows when the rows are shorter than the minimum buffer size.