CLOSE(7)

💅 CLOSE(7) — the PostgreSQL glow-up

okay bestie, welcome to CLOSE, page 7 of the PostgreSQL 15.19 docs ✨ this is the one where we say bye-bye to a cursor, and honestly? it's giving closure (literally). let's get into it 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS

CLOSE { name | ALL }

that's it. that's the whole vibe check. two ways to do it, pick your fighter 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION

CLOSE frees the resources associated with an open cursor 🔥 after the cursor is closed, no subsequent operations are allowed on it — like, none, bestie, it's done 💀 a cursor should be closed when it is no longer needed.

here's the lore on when cursors get closed automatically, no cap:

• every non-holdable open cursor is implicitly closed when a transaction is terminated by COMMIT or ROLLBACK 👑
• a holdable cursor is implicitly closed if the transaction that created it aborts via ROLLBACK
• but if the creating transaction successfully commits, the holdable cursor remains open until an explicit CLOSE is executed, or the client disconnects 🌈

so like, holdable cursors have main character energy and stick around. noted. 🙈

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🎀 PARAMETERS

• name — the name of an open cursor to close. just the one. your fave. 💖
• ALL — close all open cursors. every single one. goodbye to the whole group chat 👋

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🦋 NOTES

okay so here's a thing that trips people up: PostgreSQL does not have an explicit OPEN cursor statement 😭 a cursor is considered open when it is declared. use the DECLARE statement to declare a cursor. that's the whole opening ceremony, iykyk ✨

you can see all available cursors by querying the pg_cursors system view 👀 highly recommend, it's literally the cursor group photo.

and now the caveat, listen up 🔥:

if a cursor is closed after a savepoint which is later rolled back, the CLOSE is not rolled back — that is, the cursor remains closed. periodt. 💅

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💜 EXAMPLES

close the cursor liahona:

CLOSE liahona;

slay. that cursor is gone. 🎀

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⭐ COMPATIBILITY

CLOSE is fully conforming with the SQL standard ✅ CLOSE ALL is a PostgreSQL extension 🌸 (yes, we added that ourselves, you're welcome 💅)

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👑 SEE ALSO

DECLARE(7), FETCH(7), MOVE(7) — go read those next, bestie, they're iconic 🫶

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mwah 💋 that was CLOSE(7) from the PostgreSQL 15.19 docs, dated 2026 — go forth and close your cursors responsibly, ily 🌈✨