How to return a ref cursor from this dbms_sql?

Question

Hi,
Can anyone show me how to return a ref cursor from this dbms_sql based procedure? I see 11g has a dbms_sql.to_refcursor(cursor_handle). How can this be done is 10g?
Thx.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE Sample_Get_t
p_sample_id sample.sample_id%TYPE,
p_contract_id sample.contr_id%TYPE
IS
cursor_handle INT;
sql_stmnt varchar2(500);
rows_processed NUMBER;
BEGIN
sql_stmnt :=
'SELECT
sample_id,
contr_id,
rcpt_id
FROM
sample s
WHERE
s.contr_id = :1
and s.sample_id = :2
ORDER BY
sample_id';
cursor_handle := dbms_sql.open_cursor;
dbms_sql.parse(cursor_handle, sql_stmnt, dbms_sql.native);
dbms_sql.bind_variable(cursor_handle, ':1', p_contract_id);
dbms_sql.bind_variable(cursor_handle, ':2', p_sample_id);
rows_processed := dbms_sql.execute(cursor_handle);
dbms_sql.close_cursor(cursor_handle);
END Sample_Get_t;

Answer 1

In 10 this cannot be done with dbms_sql (to my knowledge). There are a couple of other options.
1) open the ref cursor for the dynamic statement using bind variables (or SYS_CONTEXT variables, which i prefer since they are much easier to deal with when you are dynamically adding predicates).
declare
   wRefCursor  SYS_REFCURSOR;
begin
   open wRefCursor for 'select * from all_objects where owner = :Logged_in_user' using user;
end;
/or using the context (the context will bind for you)
declare
   wRefCursor  SYS_REFCURSOR;
begin
   open wRefCursor for 'select * from all_objects where owner = SYS_CONTEXT(''CONTEXT_NAME'', ''VARIABLE_NAME'') ';
end;
/Be aware that contexts ALWAYS return varchar values, so if you are comparing to a number you should wrap it in TO_NUMBER, a date, TO_DATE and so on....
2) change the DBMS_SQL to do an insert into a global temporary table and return the ref cursor which select's * from GTT;
3) upgrade to Oracle 11 :)