Scribd
Upload
91 views3 pages

8.3 PL - SQL Cursor Variables With REF CURSOR

This document discusses PL/SQL cursor variables and REF CURSOR types. Cursor variables allow passing query results between PL/SQL programs by referencing a cursor, rather than fetching all data. There are two types of REF CURSORs: strong typed, which is associated with a specific record structure; and weak typed, not associated with any structure. The document provides examples of declaring and using cursor variables, including a function that returns a weak REF CURSOR of employee reports.

Uploaded by

Faiyaz Raza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
91 views3 pages

8.3 PL - SQL Cursor Variables With REF CURSOR

This document discusses PL/SQL cursor variables and REF CURSOR types. Cursor variables allow passing query results between PL/SQL programs by referencing a cursor, rather than fetching all data. There are two types of REF CURSORs: strong typed, which is associated with a specific record structure; and weak typed, not associated with any structure. The document provides examples of declaring and using cursor variables, including a function that returns a weak REF CURSOR of employee reports.

Uploaded by

Faiyaz Raza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about PL/SQL cursor variables and how to manage cursors

variables using REF CURSOR .

Introduction to PL/SQL cursor variables

A cursor variable is a variable that references to a cursor. Different from implicit and explicit cursors, a
cursor variable is not tied to any specific query. Meaning that a cursor variable can be opened for any
query.

The most important benefit of a cursor variable is that it enables passing the result of a query between
PL/SQL programs. Without a cursor variable, you have to fetch all data from a cursor, store it in a
variable e.g., a collection, and pass this variable as an argument. With a cursor variable, you simply pass
the reference to that cursor.

To declare a cursor variable, you use the REF CURSOR is the data type. PL/SQL has two forms of REF
CURSOR typeS: strong typed and weak typed REF CURSOR .

The following shows an example of a strong REF CURSOR .


DECLARE
TYPE customer_t IS REF CURSOR RETURN customers%ROWTYPE;
c_customer customer_t;

This form of cursor variable called strong typed REF CURSOR because the cursor variable is always
associated with a specific record structure, or type.

And here is an example of a weak typed REF CURSOR declaration that is not associated with any
specific structure:

DECLARE
TYPE customer_t IS REF CURSOR;
c_customer customer_t;

Starting from Oracle 9i, you can use SYS_REFCURSOR , which is a predefined weak typed REF CURSOR , to
declare a weak REF CURSOR as follows:


DECLARE
c_customer SYS_REFCURSOR;

PL/SQL cursor variable examples

The following function gets all direct reports of a manager based on the manager id from the
employees table in the sample database. The function returns a weak typed REF CURSOR variable:


CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_direct_reports(
in_manager_id IN employees.manager_id%TYPE)
RETURN SYS_REFCURSOR
AS
c_direct_reports SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN

OPEN c_direct_reports FOR


SELECT
employee_id,
first_name,
last_name,
email
FROM
employees
WHERE
manager_id = in_manager_id
ORDER BY
first_name,
last_name;
RETURN c_direct_reports;
END;

The following anonymous block calls the get_direct_reports () function and processes the cursor
variable to display the direct reports of the manager with id of 46.


DECLARE
c_direct_reports SYS_REFCURSOR;
l_employee_id employees.employee_id%TYPE;
l_first_name employees.first_name%TYPE;
l_last_name employees.last_name%TYPE;
l_email employees.email%TYPE;
BEGIN
-- get the ref cursor from function
c_direct_reports := get_direct_reports(46);

-- process each employee


LOOP
FETCH
c_direct_reports
INTO
l_employee_id,
l_first_name,
l_last_name,
l_email;
EXIT
WHEN c_direct_reports%notfound;
dbms_output.put_line(l_first_name || ' ' || l_last_name || ' - ' || l_email );
END LOOP;
-- close the cursor
CLOSE c_direct_reports;
END;
/

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use PL/SQL cursor variables with REF CURSOR type.

You might also like