Common operations in WiredTiger are performed using WT_CURSOR handles. A cursor includes:
Cursors are created using the WT_SESSION::open_cursor method. For example, from the program ex_cursor.c:
Another example from the same program:
In addition to traditional data sources, cursors in WiredTiger are used to access projections and even created data sources such as the run-time statistics:
See Cursors for more information on available cursor types.
Cursors remain open until either WT_CURSOR::close is called or the cursor's session is closed, which may either be in WT_SESSION::close or WT_CONNECTION::close.
Cursors may be positioned at the beginning of the data source, the end of the data source, at an exact key within the data source, and near a key within the data source.
To invalidate the position of a cursor so that subsequent iterations start from the beginning or end of the data source, use the WT_CURSOR::reset method:
To move a cursor forward in the data source, use the cursor WT_CURSOR::next method:
If the WT_CURSOR::next method is called on a cursor without a position in the data source, it is positioned at the beginning of the data source.
To move a cursor backward in the data source, use the cursor WT_CURSOR::prev method:
If the WT_CURSOR::prev method is called on a cursor without a position in the data source, it is positioned at the end of the data source.
To position a cursor at a specific location in the data source, use the WT_CURSOR::search method:
To position a cursor at or near a location in the data source, use the WT_CURSOR::search_near method:
Cursor positions do not survive transactions: cursors that are open during WT_SESSION::begin_transaction, WT_SESSION::commit_transaction or WT_SESSION::rollback_transaction will lose their position as if WT_CURSOR::reset was called.
Cursors can be configured to move to a random position with WT_CURSOR::next is called, see Cursor random for details.
To insert new data, and optionally update existing data, using a cursor, use the WT_CURSOR::insert method:
To update existing data using a cursor, use the WT_CURSOR::update method:
To remove existing data using a cursor, use the WT_CURSOR::remove method:
The WT_SESSION::open_cursor overwrite
configuration is true
by default, causing WT_CURSOR::insert, WT_CURSOR::remove and WT_CURSOR::update to ignore the current state of the record, and these methods will succeed regardless of whether or not the record previously exists.
When an application configures overwrite
to false
, WT_CURSOR::insert will fail with WT_DUPLICATE_KEY if the record previously exists, and WT_CURSOR::update and WT_CURSOR::remove will fail with WT_NOTFOUND if the record does not previously exist.
After any cursor handle method failure, the cursor's position is undetermined. For cursor operations that expect a key to be set before the operation begins (including WT_CURSOR::search, WT_CURSOR::insert, WT_CURSOR::update and WT_CURSOR::remove), the application's key and value will not be cleared by an error.
Applications that cannot re-position the cursor after failure must duplicate the cursor by calling WT_SESSION::open_cursor and passing the cursor as the to_dup
parameter before calling a cursor method that will attempt to re-position the cursor. Cursor duplication is not supported for the backup, config and statistics cursor types.
When applications pass a pointer (either to a WT_ITEM or a string), to WT_CURSOR::set_key or WT_CURSOR::set_value, WiredTiger does not copy the memory referenced by the pointer. For this reason, the application must keep the referenced memory unchanged and valid until the next operation that successfully positions the cursor, modifies the underlying data, or the cursor is reset or closed (discarding its resources). The operations that position the cursor are WT_CURSOR::next, WT_CURSOR::prev, WT_CURSOR::search and WT_CURSOR::search_near; the operations that modify the underlying data are WT_CURSOR::insert, WT_CURSOR::update and WT_CURSOR::remove.
If a cursor operation fails (for example, due to a WT_ROLLBACK error), it may be retried without calling WT_CURSOR::set_key or WT_CURSOR::set_value again. That is, the cursor may still reference the application-supplied memory until the cursor is successfully positioned, underlying data is modified, or the cursor is closed or reset.
Any pointers returned by WT_CURSOR::get_key or WT_CURSOR::get_value are only valid until a subsequent cursor call that successfully positions the cursor, modifies the underlying data, or the cursor is reset or closed. These pointers may reference private WiredTiger data structures that may not be modified or freed by the application. If a longer scope is required, the application must make a copy of the memory before the cursor is re-used, closed or reset.
The comments in this example code explain when the application can safely modify memory passed to WT_CURSOR::set_key or WT_CURSOR::set_value: