Dynamic field in a cursor

Question

hi there!
i want to make a cursor that changes the field in the select list according to a given parameter. for instance, can i do somethind like this?
cursor my_cur(my_field varchar2) is
select my_field
from my_table;
and furter more, can i do something like this?
cursor my_cur(my_field varchar2) is
select to_char(my_field| |'some_str','hh24:mi') as my_alias
from my_table;
null

Answer 1

NO you can't do that. If you want to use the fiedl name dynamically then you have to use ref cursor.
TYPE t_cursor is ref cursor;
my_cur t_cursor;
Note: You have declare the ref cursor in a package specification.
v_sql:='select to_char('| |my_field| |
'some_str,'| |chr(39)| |'hh24:mi'| |chr(39)| |
') my_alias from my_table';
now this v_sql variable hold the exact query that has to be opened by the cursor.
Open my_cur for v_sql;
Hope you can understand from the above....If you don't know ref cursor concept refer the oracle documentation.
null