<p>Is it a good idea to use while loop instead of a cursor?</p>
<p>What are the advantages/disadvantages of cursors?</p>

Some of these depends on the DBMS, but generally:
Pros:
Outperform loops when it comes to row-by-row processing
Works reasonably well with large datasets
Cons:
Don't scale as well
Use more server resources
Increases load on tempdb
Can cause leaks if used incorrectly (eg. Open without corresponding Close)