How to create table from ref cursor

Question

I have a proc that returns a ref cursor, whats the simplest way to create a table based on the return of the ref cursor?
declare
type rc is ref cursor;
p_data rc;
begin
call_my_proc(p_data);
:result := p_data; -- If I run this in TOAD I can see the data here but I want to create a table based on it rather than outputting it)
end;
thanks.
edit: sorry. typed this wrong first time, should be right now

Answer 1

961469 wrote:
I have a proc that returns a ref cursor, whats the simplest way to create a table based on the return of the ref cursor?Not to do it...
A cursor is not a result set. A cursor is not a result set. Worth repeating several times as this is a common misconception
A cursor is essentially a program. Executable code that was compiled from a SQL source code program.
A SELECT cursor is "read" program. Each fetch instruction runs this program (from its current "paused state"), and outputs data.
An INSERT cursor is a "write" program. You pass data to it (process called binding, via bind variables). You then execute the program. It writes the data it received (can be bulk data via a bulk bind) to table.
Now your question is: How do I write the output of a cursor program back to the database?
The answer is that a "write" cursor program is needed. Your code needs to execute (fetch output from) the ref (read/select) cursor. Then bind that data to the "write" cursor and execute it.
In other words, you have a read cursor and a write cursor, and you need to pass data from one to the other.
HOWEVER.. This is slow. This does not scale. This is also known as slow-by-slow row by row processing.
The correct approach is to create a single program. One that reads the data, and then writes the data. No to send data via a detour through your code between the read part and write part.
The cursor to create is an INSERT..SELECT cursor. This can do fast direct path inserts. This can be executed in parallel - i.e. the database executing several copies of this read-and-write program at the same time.