Specifies the columns in a cursor that you or your program might later modify with an UPDATE statement. The column names in the FOR UPDATE clause must belong to a table or view named in the FROM clause. You do not have to specify the FOR UPDATE clause of the SELECT statement to later modify rows using the UPDATE statement: o If you do specify a FOR UPDATE clause with column names and later specify columns in the UPDATE statement that are not in the FOR UPDATE clause, SQL issues a warning message and proceeds with the update modifications. o If you do specify a FOR UPDATE clause but do not specify any column names, you can update any column using the UPDATE statement. SQL does not issue any messages. o If you do not specify a FOR UPDATE clause, you can update any column using the UPDATE statement. SQL does not issue any messages. The FOR UPDATE OF clause in a SELECT statement provides UPDATE ONLY CURSOR semantics by locking all the rows selected.