Switching from using a CURSOR to a WHILE loop will mean they are not processing by a row. This is not true. The following examples illustrates this myth. Both examples are processing row by row :
Example 1 - CURSOR

create table #mytemp
(ID INT ,
avalue VARCHAR(100),
status INT
)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(1,'Mick Jagger',0)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(2,'Keith Richards',0)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(3,'Ron Wood',0)
declare @cnt INT,@tmpINT INT
SET @cnt = 1
DECLARE my_cursor CURSOR FOR
SELECT ID FROM #mytemp
OPEN my_cursor
FETCH NEXT FROM my_cursor
INTO @tmpINT
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
PRINT @cnt
UPDATE #mytemp SET status = 1 WHERE ID = @cnt
SET @cnt = @cnt + 1
FETCH NEXT FROM my_cursor
INTO @tmpINT;
END
CLOSE my_cursor;
DEALLOCATE my_cursor;

Example 2 - WHILE loop

create table #mytemp
(ID INT ,
avalue VARCHAR(100),
status INT
)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(1,'Mick Jagger',0)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(2,'Keith Richards',0)
INSERT INTO #mytemp (ID,avalue,status) VALUES(3,'Ron Wood',0)
declare @cnt INT
SET @cnt = 1
WHILE (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #mytemp WHERE status = 0) 0
BEGIN
UPDATE #mytemp SET status = 1 WHERE ID = @cnt
SET @cnt = @cnt + 1

END
SELECT * FROM #mytemp
DROP TABLE #mytemp