Ref cursor type

Question

Hello All,
I have a small procedure like the following.
CREATE OR REPLACE procedure PROC_DEPT_SALE(SALEC_CUR out sys_refcursor)
as
begin
open sale for select * from dept_sale where dept_no='Z2341324';
end;
I just want to execute it from toad like
exec PROC_DEPT_SALE( C1);
In order to do that i need to have a sys_refcursor c1 created in my DB. I know that i can execute it as a plsql block like this
DECLARE
SALE SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
PROC_DEPT_SALE( SALE );
END;
Could anyone please let me know how can i create a TYPE REF cursor which is permanantly stored in the DB and then execute the proc the way i wanted to using the first statement.
Thanks

Answer 1

Actually, you had it correct with
CREATE OR REPLACE package cur_type as
   TYPE ref_cur IS REF CURSOR;
end;but you still need to declare a variable of the type to pass the the procedure since the procedure needs to have a cursor variable to open. Given your package, the call would be more like:
DECLARE
   l_cur cur_type.ref_cur;
BEGIN
   proc_dept_sale(l_cur);
   <do something with l_cur>
END;Forget about the cursor for a minute and think through this example. If I have a procedure that looks like:
CREATE PROCEDURE get_name (p_id    IN NUMBER,
                           p_name OUT VARCHAR2) AS
BEGIN
   SELECT last_name||', '||first_name
   INTO p_name
   FROM employee
   WHERE emp_id = p_id;
END;I can pass a literal value to the procedure for the p_id parameter (e.g. 42) or I could pass a variable holding a value.
What do I need to pass to the procedure in p_name to get the name back out? A procedure returning a cursor is no different than this in concept.
John