Abstract: A method is disclosed for supporting sequential batch applications within a data processing system which permits the continued enumeration of a sequence of objects across a transaction commit, roll-back or system failure. A query is defined which specified a set of objects and a named cursor is associated with the query, each cursor including at least one scan which may be utilized to evaluate and enumerate the query. Selected cursors may be designated as persistent cursors and stored, along with the state of any associated scan(s) and a query evaluation state in a persistent cursor table (PCT) in response to a transaction commit. Thereafter, the evaluation and enumeration of the query may be reestablished at the point of a persistent cursor by utilizing the information stored within the persistent cursor table (PCT).