Problem with PL/SQL loop

Question

Hi,
Here is what I am trying to do. The SQL query retrurns only one record but the loop is execuitng twice. The count returns 2. What could be the problem? Thanks for your help.
type t_name is record(id number, c_name varchar2(100));
type t_names is ref cursor return t_name
Procedure returnVal()
v_t_names t_names;
count number;
BEGIN
count : = 0;
OPEN v_t_names for select user_id, u_name from tableA WHERE dept_id = 100;
LOOP
FETCH v_t_names into t_name;
Exit when v_t_names%not found;
count := count + 1
END LOOP
END returnVal;
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Answer 1

After fixing the million and one errors with your example code, I turned it into the following similar so I could run it:
declare
  type t_name is record(id number, c_name varchar2(100));
  type t_names is ref cursor return t_name;
  v_t_names t_names;
  v_t_name_rec t_name;
  l_count number;
BEGIN
  l_count := 0;
  OPEN v_t_names for select 1, 'Fred' from dual;
  LOOP
    FETCH v_t_names into v_t_name_rec;
    Exit when v_t_names%notfound;
    l_count := l_count + 1;
  END LOOP;
  dbms_output.put_line(l_count);
END;
/the output was: 1.
The loop does get executed twice - the first time through it does a fetch, finds a record, so doesn't satisfy the EXIT criteria, and updates l_count, and finishes the first loop through. It must then go back to the top of the loop, and fetch another record. However, because there was only 1 record, the exit criteria is now met, so the procedure now jumps out of the loop without updating l_count. So, the loop has been entered twice.
Does that explain things?
Message was edited by:
Boneist
One thought: Since your code was so obviously an example you made up to illustrate your problem, can you guarentee that the "increment the counter" step was AFTER the "exit when cursor%notfound" step in the original?
My guess is that it's before it, so that the count goes up regardless of the cursor having fetched a row or not.