Working with REF CURSOR in PL/SQL All the examples in this series have been tested only with

Oracle 10g (V10.2). I didn't really test any of the examples in any of the previous versions. If yo u have any problems during the execution of these examples, please post in the d iscussion area. Introduction to REF CURSOR A REF CURSOR is basically a data type. A variable created based on such a data type is generally called a cursor variable. A cursor variable can be associated with different queries at run-time. The primary advantage of using cursor vari ables is their capability to pass result sets between sub programs (like stored procedures, functions, packages etc.). Let us start with a small sub-program as follows: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; en emp.ename%type; begin open c_emp for select ename from emp; loop fetch c_emp into en; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(en); end loop; close c_emp; end; Let me explain step by step. The following is the first statement you need to u nderstand: type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; The above statement simply defines a new data type called "r_cursor," which is o f the type REF CURSOR. We declare a cursor variable named "c_emp" based on the type "r_cursor" as follows: c_emp r_cursor; Every cursor variable must be opened with an associated SELECT statement as foll ows: open c_emp for select ename from emp; To retrieve each row of information from the cursor, I used a loop together with a FETCH statement as follows: loop fetch c_emp into en; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(en); end loop; I finally closed the cursor using the following statement: close c_emp;

%ROWTYPE with REF CURSOR In the previous section, I retrieved only one column (ename) of information usin g REF CURSOR. Now I would like to retrieve more than one column (or entire row) of information using the same. Let us consider the following example: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; er emp%rowtype; begin open c_emp for select * from emp; loop fetch c_emp into er; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(er.ename end loop; close c_emp; end;

' - '

er.sal);

In the above example, the only crucial declaration is the following: er emp%rowtype; The above declares a variable named "er," which can hold an entire row from the "emp" table. To retrieve the values (of each column) from that variable, we use the dot notation as follows: dbms_output.put_line(er.ename ' - ' er.sal);

Let us consider that a table contains forty columns and would like to retrieve f ifteen columns. In such scenarios, it is a bad idea to retrieve all forty colum ns of information. At the same time, declaring and working with fifteen variabl es would be bit clumsy. Until now, we have been working either with %TYPE or %ROWTYPE. This means we are working with either one value or one complete record. How do we create our own data type, with our own specified number of values to hold? This is where TYPE a nd RECORD come in. Let us consider the following example: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; type rec_emp is record ( name varchar2(20), sal number(6) ); er rec_emp; begin open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp; loop fetch c_emp into er; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(er.name ' - ' end loop; close c_emp; end;

er.sal);

The most confusing aspect from the above program is the following:

type rec_emp is record ( name varchar2(20), sal number(6) ); The above defines a new data type named "rec_emp" (just like %ROWTYPE with limit ed specified fields) which can hold two fields, namely "name" and "sal." er rec_emp; The above statement declares a variable "er" based on the datatype "rec_emp." T his means that "er" internally contains the fields "name" and "job."

open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = 10; . . fetch c_emp into er; . . close c_emp; . . open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = 20; . . fetch c_emp into er; . . close c_emp; . . end; From the above skeleton, you can easily understand that every CURSOR is opened, used and closed before opening the same with the next SELECT statement. Working with REF CURSOR inside loops Sometimes, it may be necessary for us to work with REF CURSOR within loops. Let us consider the following example: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; type rec_emp is record ( name varchar2(20), sal number(6) ); er rec_emp; begin for i in (select deptno,dname from dept) loop open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = i.deptno; dbms_output.put_line(i.dname); dbms_output.put_line('--------------'); loop fetch c_emp into er; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(er.name ' - ' er.sal); end loop; close c_emp;

end loop; end; As you can observe from the above program, I implemented a FOR loop as follows: for i in (select deptno,dname from dept) loop . . end loop; The above loop iterates continuously for each row of the "dept" table. The deta ils of each row in "dept" (like deptno, dname etc.) will be available in the var iable "i." Using that variable (as part of the SELECT statement), I am working with REF CURSOR as follows: open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = i.deptno; The rest of the program is quite commonplace. Sub-programs can also be called sub-routines. These are nothing but the divisio ns of the main program. These divisions are named and are executed when they ar e called by name from the main program. They will not get executed unless they are called. The following is an example: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; type rec_emp is record ( name varchar2(20), sal number(6) ); er rec_emp; procedure PrintEmployeeDetails is begin loop fetch c_emp into er; exit when c_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(er.name ' - ' er.sal); end loop; end; begin for i in (select deptno,dname from dept) loop open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = i.deptno; dbms_output.put_line(i.dname); dbms_output.put_line('--------------'); PrintEmployeeDetails; close c_emp; end loop; end; In the above program, the sub-routine is named "PrintEmployeeDetails." You can observe that I am executing (or calling) the sub-routine from within the loop as follows: for i in (select deptno,dname from dept)

loop . . PrintEmployeeDetails; . . end loop; According to the above loop, the sub-routine gets executed for every iteration, which displays the employee information for the respective department. Passing REF CURSOR as parameters to sub-programs In the previous section, we already started working with sub-programs (or sub-ro utines). In this section, I shall extend the same with the concept of "paramete rs" (or arguments). Every sub-program (or sub-routine) can accept values passed to it in the form of "parameters" (or arguments). Every parameter is very simi lar to a variable, but gets declared as part of a sub-program. Let us consider the following program: declare type r_cursor is REF CURSOR; c_emp r_cursor; type rec_emp is record ( name varchar2(20), sal number(6) ); procedure PrintEmployeeDetails(p_emp r_cursor) is er rec_emp; begin loop fetch p_emp into er; exit when p_emp%notfound; dbms_output.put_line(er.name ' - ' er.sal); end loop; end; begin for i in (select deptno,dname from dept) loop open c_emp for select ename,sal from emp where deptno = i.deptno; dbms_output.put_line(i.dname); dbms_output.put_line('--------------'); PrintEmployeeDetails(c_emp); close c_emp; end loop; end; From the above program, you can observe the following declaration: procedure PrintEmployeeDetails(p_emp r_cursor) is In the above declaration, "PrintEmployeeDetails" is the name of the sub-routine which accepts "p_emp" as a parameter (of type "r_cursor") and we can use that pa rameter throughout that sub-routine.