Convert %rowtype function return into sys_refcursor

Question

I have an interesting problem. We have created a standard pattern for all of our "get" functions for returning data to always return a sys_refcursor to our JAVA application as it is very easy to deal with cursors and convert them to Java Collection objects (i.e. List). I'm having an issue though with the fact that some of our lower level (DML layer) pl sql code returns [TABLE_NAME]%rowtype types. I haven't found a way for jdbc to handle this type of structure, and have found some people saying that is just can't (which makes sense).
What I would like to pose is if anyone has a clever way to manually create a cursor and insert the %rowtype object into it. It sounds simple enough, but I've tried a few approaches and nothing works. Maybe I'm just too tired or it's simply not possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You could use pipelined functions, something like that:
create table testtable
   pk number,
   col2 varchar2(10)
insert into testtable values(1, 'ABC');
create or replace package testpack
as
   type tabtype_testtable is table of testtable%rowtype;
   function f_get_row return testtable%rowtype;
   function f_pipe_row return tabtype_testtable pipelined;
   function f_ret_refcur return sys_refcursor;
end testpack;
create or replace package body testpack
as
   function f_get_row return testtable%rowtype
   is
      r_testtable testtable%rowtype;
   begin
      select pk,
             col2
      into   r_testtable
      from   testtable
      where  rownum = 1
      return(r_testtable);
   end f_get_row;
   function f_pipe_row return tabtype_testtable pipelined
   is
   begin
      pipe row(f_get_row);
      return;
   end f_pipe_row;
   function f_ret_refcur return sys_refcursor
   is
      r_refcur sys_refcursor;
   begin
      open r_refcur for
         select * from table(f_pipe_row);
      return(r_refcur);
      close r_refcur;
   end f_ret_refcur;
end;
/Regards,
Gerd
Message was edited by:
gerd_99
Forgot to close the cursor in f_ret_refcur.