SELECT from SYS_REFCURSOR?

Question

My function is being passed a SYS_REFCURSOR as a parameter. I need to use the values stored within it in one of my SELECT statements. If the REFCURSOR were a Collection I could do something along the lines of:
             select *
             from   my_table msg
                      table(cast(my_ref_cursor as my_obj_type)) v
             where  msg.message_code = v.errorcodeHow can I acheive something similar with a REFCURSOR?
I am currently using the LOOP/FETCH/EXIT/END LOOP construct to go through each record in the REFCURSOR and then using the ERRORCODE returned by each row in my SELECT statement however this seems a like a poor solution as the same SQL will be executed many times for each record in the REFCURSOR.
Any ideas as to how I can turn the REFCURSOR into a Collection or a set of values that I can then use in my SELECT statement?

Answer 1

You can if you go via XML. Consider:
SQL> CREATE TYPE emp_typ AS OBJECT (
   empno      NUMBER (4),
   ename      VARCHAR (10),
   job        VARCHAR (9),
   mgr        NUMBER (4),
   hiredate   DATE,
   sal        NUMBER (7, 2),
   comm       NUMBER (7, 2),
   deptno     NUMBER (2)
Type created
SQL> CREATE TYPE emp_tab AS TABLE OF emp_typ
Type created
SQL> CREATE TYPE xmltype_tab AS TABLE OF XMLTYPE
Type created
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE p (cur IN sys_refcursor)
AS
   emp_xml     XMLTYPE;
   p_emp_typ   emp_typ;
   mycur       sys_refcursor;
BEGIN
/*  Convert the cursor to XML */
   SELECT *
     INTO emp_xml
     FROM TABLE (CAST (XMLSEQUENCE (cur) AS xmltype_tab));
/* Convert the XML to Object  */
   emp_xml.toobject (p_emp_typ);
/*  Select from the corresponding Collection */
   OPEN mycur FOR
      SELECT *
        FROM TABLE (CAST (emp_tab (p_emp_typ) AS emp_tab));
   ---  DO_YOUR_STAFF_HERE
   CLOSE mycur;
END p;
Procedure created.
SQL> DECLARE
   cur   sys_refcursor;
BEGIN
   OPEN cur FOR
      SELECT *
        FROM emp
       WHERE empno = 7369;
/*  Call procedure with REF cursor */
   p (cur);
   CLOSE cur;
END;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.Hope this helps.
Regards
Michael