How to use refcursor in a package

Question

i want to use refcursor in a package
but when i am trying to declare a refcursor variable ,
I get no error but the refcursor does not return anything .
why is this happenning ?
I also read that we cannot define cursor variables in a paclage .
Then how to go about it ?
regards
shubhajit

Answer 1

Since Oracle 7.3 REF CURSORS have been available which allow recordsets to be returned from stored procedures, functions and packages. The example below uses a ref cursor to return a subset of the records in the EMP table.
First, a package definition is needed to hold the ref cursor type:
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE Types AS
TYPE cursor_type IS REF CURSOR;
END Types;
Note. In Oracle9i the SYS_REFCURSOR type has been added making this first step unnecessary. If you are using Oracle9i or later simply ignore this first package and replace any references to Types.cursor_type with SYS_REFCURSOR.
Next a procedure is defined to use the ref cursor:
CREATE OR REPLACE
PROCEDURE GetEmpRS (p_deptno IN emp.deptno%TYPE,
p_recordset OUT Types.cursor_type) AS
BEGIN
OPEN p_recordset FOR
SELECT ename,
empno,
deptno
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = p_deptno
ORDER BY ename;
END GetEmpRS;
The resulting cursor can be referenced from PL/SQL as follows:
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000
DECLARE
v_cursor Types.cursor_type;
v_ename emp.ename%TYPE;
v_empno emp.empno%TYPE;
v_deptno emp.deptno%TYPE;
BEGIN
GetEmpRS (p_deptno => 30,
p_recordset => v_cursor);
LOOP
FETCH v_cursor
INTO v_ename, v_empno, v_deptno;
EXIT WHEN v_cursor%NOTFOUND;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_ename || ' | ' || v_empno || ' | ' || v_deptno);
END LOOP;
CLOSE v_cursor;
END;
In addition the cursor can be used as an ADO Recordset:
Dim conn, cmd, rs
Set conn = Server.CreateObject("adodb.connection")
conn.Open "DSN=TSH1;UID=scott;PWD=tiger"
Set cmd = Server.CreateObject ("ADODB.Command")
Set cmd.ActiveConnection = conn
cmd.CommandText = "GetEmpRS"
cmd.CommandType = 4 'adCmdStoredProc
Dim param1
Set param1 = cmd.CreateParameter ("deptno", adInteger, adParamInput)
cmd.Parameters.Append param1
param1.Value = 30
Set rs = cmd.Execute
Do Until rs.BOF Or rs.EOF
-- Do something
rs.MoveNext
Loop
rs.Close
conn.Close
Set rs = nothing
Set param1 = nothing
Set cmd = nothing
Set conn = nothing
The cursor can also be referenced as a Java ResultSet:
import java.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.*;
public class TestResultSet {
public TestResultSet() {
try {
DriverManager.registerDriver (new oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver());
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:oci:@w2k1", "scott", "tiger");
CallableStatement stmt = conn.prepareCall("BEGIN GetEmpRS(?, ?); END;");
stmt.setInt(1, 30); // DEPTNO
stmt.registerOutParameter(2, OracleTypes.CURSOR); //REF CURSOR
stmt.execute();
ResultSet rs = ((OracleCallableStatement)stmt).getCursor(2);
while (rs.next()) {
System.out.println(rs.getString("ename") + ":" + rs.getString("empno") + ":" + rs.getString("deptno"));
rs.close();
rs = null;
stmt.close();
stmt = null;
conn.close();
conn = null;
catch (SQLException e) {
System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
public static void main (String[] args) {
new TestResultSet();
Hope this helps. Regards
Srini