title: Distinction between database cursors and cursors used in psycopg2
body: <p>I may be confused but that's exactly why I ask. Can a program using <code>psycopg2</code> execute commands against the database without using a cursor? Every <a href="https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Psycopg2_Tutorial" rel="nofollow noreferrer">example</a> I've ever seen uses <code>cur = conn.cursor()</code> and then an execute statement like <code>cur.execute("""SELECT datname from pg_database""")</code></p>
  
  <p>My question is can <code>SELECT datname from pg_database</code> be done without cur? </p>
  
  <p>Is the psycopg2 idea of a cursor the same idea of the actual <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/plpgsql-cursors.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">database cursor</a> i.e. is there a 1-1 relationship?</p>
  
  <p>After read 
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3861558/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-database-cursor">What are the benefits of using database cursor?</a> I was a bit confused as they seem to speak as if cursors aren't nescecary (but I guess when directly interacting with the db through e.g. pgadmin they are).</p>