Writing Explicit Cursors

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Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

do the following:
• Distinguish between an implicit and an explicit
cursor
• Discuss when and why to use an explicit cursor
• Use a PL/SQL record variable
• Write a cursor FOR loop

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About Cursors

Every SQL statement executed by the Oracle Server

has an individual cursor associated with it:
• Implicit cursors: Declared for all DML and PL/SQL
SELECT statements
• Explicit cursors: Declared and named by the
programmer

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Explicit Cursor Functions

Table
100 King AD_PRES
101 Kochhar AD_VP
Active set
102 De Haan AD_VP
Cursor
. . .
. . .
. . .
139 Seo ST_CLERK
140 Patel ST_CLERK
. . .

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Controlling Explicit Cursors

No

Yes
DECLARE OPEN FETCH EMPTY? CLOSE

• Create a • Identify • Load the • Test for • Release

named the active current existing the active
SQL set row into rows set
area variables • Return to
FETCH if
rows are
found

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Controlling Explicit Cursors

1. Open the cursor

2. Fetch a row
3. Close the
Cursor

1. Open the cursor.

Cursor
pointer

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Controlling Explicit Cursors

1. Open the cursor

2. Fetch a row
3. Close the
Cursor

2. Fetch a row using the cursor.

Cursor
pointer

Continue until empty.

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Controlling Explicit Cursors

1. Open the cursor

2. Fetch a row
3. Close the
Cursor

3. Close the cursor.

Cursor
pointer

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Declaring the Cursor

Syntax:

CURSOR cursor_name IS
•
select_statement;
Do not include the INTO clause in the cursor declaration.

• If processing rows in a specific sequence is required, use the ORDER BY clause in the query.

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Declaring the Cursor

Example:
DECLARE
CURSOR emp_cursor IS
SELECT employee_id, last_name
FROM employees;

CURSOR dept_cursor IS
SELECT *
FROM departments
WHERE location_id = 170;
BEGIN
...

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Opening the Cursor

Syntax:
OPEN cursor_name;

• Open the cursor to execute the query and identify

the active set.
• If the query returns no rows, no exception is
raised.
• Use cursor attributes to test the outcome after a
fetch.

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Fetching Data from the Cursor

Syntax:
FETCH cursor_name INTO [variable1, variable2, ...]
| record_name];

• Retrieve the current row values into variables.

• Include the same number of variables.
• Match each variable to correspond to the
columns positionally.
• Test to see whether the cursor contains rows.

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Fetching Data from the Cursor

Example:
LOOP
FETCH emp_cursor INTO v_empno,v_ename;
EXIT WHEN ...;
...
-- Process the retrieved data
…
END LOOP;

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Closing the Cursor

Syntax:
CLOSE cursor_name;

• Close the cursor after completing the processing

of the rows.
• Reopen the cursor, if required.
• Do not attempt to fetch data from a cursor after it
has been closed.

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 Explicit Cursor Attributes

Obtain status information about a cursor.

Attribute Type Description
%ISOPEN Boolean Evaluates to TRUE if the
cursor is open
%NOTFOUND Boolean Evaluates to TRUE if the
most recent fetch does not
return a row
%FOUND Boolean Evaluates to TRUE if the
most recent fetch returns a
row; complement of
%NOTFOUND
%ROWCOUNT Number Evaluates to the total
number of rows returned so far

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The %ISOPEN Attribute

• Fetch rows only when the cursor is open.

• Use the %ISOPEN cursor attribute before
performing a fetch to test whether the cursor is
open.
Example:
IF NOT emp_cursor%ISOPEN THEN
OPEN emp_cursor;
END IF;
LOOP
FETCH emp_cursor...

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Controlling Multiple Fetches

• Process several rows from an explicit cursor using

a loop.
• Fetch a row with each iteration.
• Use explicit cursor attributes to test the success
of each fetch.

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The %NOTFOUND
and %ROWCOUNT Attributes

• Use the %ROWCOUNT cursor attribute to retrieve

an exact number of rows.
• Use the %NOTFOUND cursor attribute to
determine when to exit the loop.

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 Example

DECLARE
v_empno employees.employee_id%TYPE;
v_ename employees.last_name%TYPE;
CURSOR emp_cursor IS
SELECT employee_id, last_name
FROM employees;
BEGIN
OPEN emp_cursor;
LOOP
FETCH emp_cursor INTO v_empno, v_ename;
EXIT WHEN emp_cursor%ROWCOUNT > 10 OR
emp_cursor%NOTFOUND;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (TO_CHAR(v_empno)
||' '|| v_ename);
END LOOP;
CLOSE emp_cursor;
END ;

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Cursors and Records
Process the rows of the active set by fetching values
into a PL/SQL RECORD.
DECLARE
CURSOR emp_cursor IS
SELECT employee_id, last_name
FROM employees;
emp_record emp_cursor%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN emp_cursor;
LOOP
FETCH emp_cursor INTO emp_record;
...

emp_record
employee_id last_name
100 King

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Cursor FOR Loops

Syntax:
FOR record_name IN cursor_name LOOP
statement1;
statement2;
. . .
END LOOP;

• The cursor FOR loop is a shortcut to process

explicit cursors.
• Implicit open, fetch, exit, and close occur.
• The record is implicitly declared.
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Cursor FOR Loops

Print a list of the employees who work for the sales

department.

DECLARE
CURSOR emp_cursor IS
SELECT last_name, department_id
FROM employees;
BEGIN
FOR emp_record IN emp_cursor LOOP
-- implicit open and implicit fetch occur
IF emp_record.department_id = 80 THEN
...
END LOOP; -- implicit close occurs
END;
/

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Cursor FOR Loops Using Subqueries

No need to declare the cursor.

Example:
BEGIN
FOR emp_record IN (SELECT last_name, department_id
FROM employees) LOOP
-- implicit open and implicit fetch occur
IF emp_record.department_id = 80 THEN
...
END LOOP; -- implicit close occurs
END;

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Summary

In this lesson you should have learned to:

• Distinguish cursor types:
• Implicit cursors: used for all DML statements
and single-row queries
• Explicit cursors: used for queries of zero, one,
or more rows
• Manipulate explicit cursors
• Evaluate the cursor status by using cursor
attributes
• Use cursor FOR loops
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