How do I execute a stored procedure once for each row returned by query?

Question

I have a stored procedure that alters user data in a certain way. I pass it user_id and it does it's thing. I want to run a query on a table and then for each user_id I find run the stored procedure once on that user_id

How would I write query for this?

Answer 1

use a cursor

ADDENDUM: [MS SQL cursor example]

declare @field1 int
declare @field2 int
declare cur CURSOR LOCAL for
    select field1, field2 from sometable where someotherfield is null

open cur

fetch next from cur into @field1, @field2

while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 BEGIN

    --execute your sproc on each row
    exec uspYourSproc @field1, @field2

    fetch next from cur into @field1, @field2
END

close cur
deallocate cur

in MS SQL, here's an example article

note that cursors are slower than set-based operations, but faster than manual while-loops; more details in this SO question

ADDENDUM 2: if you will be processing more than just a few records, pull them into a temp table first and run the cursor over the temp table; this will prevent SQL from escalating into table-locks and speed up operation

ADDENDUM 3: and of course, if you can inline whatever your stored procedure is doing to each user ID and run the whole thing as a single SQL update statement, that would be optimal