What is a cursor variable?

In case of a cursor, Oracle opens an anonymous work area that stores processing information. This area can be accessed by cursor variable which points to this area. One must define a REF CURSOR type, and then declare cursor variables of that type to do so.

E.g.:

/* Create the cursor type. */
TYPE company_curtype IS REF CURSOR RETURN company%ROWTYPE;

/* Declare a cursor variable of that type. */
company_curvar company_curtype;

Oracle - What is a cursor variable? - April 10, 2009 at 11:00 AM

What is a cursor variable?  

A cursor variable is capable to get associated with different SELECT statements at run time. It is a reference type which is quite similar to pointer in C. In order to use cursor variable, it has to be declared first, and then the storage has to be allocated.

Oracle - What is a cursor variable? - June 18, 2009 at 15:00 PM

A cursor variable is a variable of REF CURSOR data type which is a pointer to a data structure resource.

It connects to query statement result, similar to the CURSOR data type.

To define cursor variable, you must decide which REF CURSOR data type to use.

The REF CURSOR data type can be selected in 3 different ways:

• By defining a specific REF CURSOR types using the TYPE ... RETURN statement.
• By defining a generic REF CURSOR type using the TYPE ... statement.
• By using the system defined SYS_REFCURSOR. 

Also read

Oracle cursors interview questions

What a SELECT FOR UPDATE cursor represent?, What WHERE CURRENT OF clause does in a cursor?, Can you pass a parameter to a cursor?, Explain the functioning of CURSOR FOR LOOP with example., Define Simple/Explicit , Parametric and Internal/Implicit cursor.............

What is the difference between REF Cursor & Normal Cursor in oracle?

Normal cursors fall under the category of static cursors while REF cursors are dynamic.........

What is use of a cursor variable in oracle?

A cursor variable works like pointer in C. It is used to hold address of an item rather than the item itself. Cursor variables can be used to hold different values at run time............

Oracle - use of "for update of"

The CURSOR FOR UPDATE obtains a lock on a selected number of rows that have not undergone a COMMIT yet..............

Oracle - use of parameterized cursor

A parameter makes the cursor more reusable, A parameter avoids scoping problems...............

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