Question

Oracle stored procedure, return recordset, declare cursor

Asked by: dobbinjp

I am very new to Oracle stored procedures. I am trying to return a recordset from my Oracle database using a SQL query (inside a stored procedure) with one input parameter. I understand I need to use a ref cursor, but I am having difficulty with compiling code based on examples I have seen here and other places on the web.

The concept is simple, I have a table of counties and there are 4 regions in the state. When the user submits a region (region_param), the stored procedure should return a list of counties. Eventually, this stored procedure will serve an XML-based web service and populate drop-downs, etc. I want to crawl before I run, though. I will ask how to return this to a web service once I get stored procedures figured out.

The error code I keep getting is "TYPES.cursorType must be declared." Here is the code I have so far...any help on syntax is appreciated!

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE getcounty
  (region_param IN NUMBER,
   resultset out TYPES.cursorType)
 
AS BEGIN
 
OPEN resultset FOR
 
    SELECT co_name
    FROM county
    WHERE county.region = region_param;
 
END getcounty;

                                  
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Asked On
2008-07-07 at 22:03:04ID23545526
Tags

Oracle PL/SQL

Topics

PL / SQL

,

Oracle 10.x

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: kretzschmarPosted on 2008-07-07 at 23:25:14ID: 21951335

do you have a package named TYPES and is there declared the type cursorType?

meikl ;-)

 

by: sujith80Posted on 2008-07-08 at 00:58:51ID: 21951776

If your intention is to return a REF CURSOR, use the predefined type sys_refcursor, as shown below.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE getcounty
  (region_param IN NUMBER,
   resultset out sys_refcursor)
 
AS BEGIN
 
OPEN resultset FOR
    SELECT co_name
    FROM county
    WHERE county.region = region_param;
 
END getcounty;
                                              
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by: dobbinjpPosted on 2008-07-08 at 10:16:08ID: 21955937

Thanks for the quick responses. sujith80, using your SQL the procedure compiled properly, but I get the following error when I try to execute it and submit a region number:

"EUnsupportedParamDataType Unsupported parameter data type Unknown."

kretzschmar, I think you are right, I need to declare the cursor type. I have a hard time building the cursor type, though. I am using Oracle Maestro, is there a SQL syntax I could use? When I try to create the parameter using the dialog boxes, I don't get cursor or anything similar as a "base type." I am going to download TOAD and see if that is any different.

One other possible issue once we get this running correctly, is the code (as written) enough to return all of the values or is there loop/end code I need to write to output all of the counties? I need to write it so that it is used by a web service called by a remote server.

Thanks again.

 

by: dobbinjpPosted on 2008-07-08 at 16:41:25ID: 21959369

I have an update, disregard my last post. Thanks to your help I have the procedure successfully compiled. I needed to declare the package with the cursor type. I think this is working now, but I need help calling the procedure and returning a recordset when I pass it a region number.

If you have any advice/thoughts on the best way for this to be used by a web service (i.e., to have the service return an XML document or an array), I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks again!

create or replace PACKAGE PKG_OE_CURSOR AS
	TYPE varCUR IS REF CURSOR;
END PKG_OE_CURSOR;
 
create or replace procedure expertscounty(
region1 in number, 
rtnCur out pkg_oe_cursor.varCUR) 
is
begin
  Open rtnCur for
  select c.nbr_tenn_c, c.co_name
    from county c
    where c.region = region1;
end expertscounty;

                                              
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by: sujith80Posted on 2008-07-08 at 18:53:37ID: 21960022

>> I needed to declare the package with the cursor type.
>> TYPE varCUR IS REF CURSOR;
This is an old school approach used in Oracle Versions 8 and below. This usage pushes you to create a package just for the sake of creating a ref cursor type. Now oracle has a predefined ref cursor type called sys_refcursor. This is JUST same as the explicit declaration you have made above.
Here is a sample code detailing how to use a procedure with ref cursor OUT parameter.

SQL> create or replace procedure test_proc(p_deptno number, p_cur OUT sys_refcursor)
  2  as
  3  begin
  4   open p_cur for
  5   select empno, ename from emp where deptno = p_deptno;
  6  end;
  7  /
 
Procedure created.
 
SQL> 
SQL> declare
  2   l_deptno number;
  3   l_cur sys_refcursor;
  4   l_empno number;
  5   l_ename varchar2(20);
  6  begin
  7   l_deptno := 20;
  8   test_proc(l_deptno, l_cur);
  9   loop
 10    fetch l_cur into l_empno, l_ename;
 11    exit when l_cur%notfound;
 12    dbms_output.put_line(l_empno ||'--'||l_ename);
 13   end loop;
 14  end;
 15  /
7369--SMITH
7566--JONES
7788--SCOTT
7876--ADAMS
7902--FORD
 
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
 
SQL> 

                                              
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by: dobbinjpPosted on 2008-07-09 at 09:25:17ID: 21965477

Thanks for the quick response. I am using Oracle Express to develop on and it doesn't seem like sys_refcursor is a valid type (at least it is not recognized/highlighted in blue by SQL developer on my Mac).

Do I need to do something to make it available/recognized by these procedures?

 

by: sujith80Posted on 2008-07-10 at 01:05:56ID: 21971303

>> recognized/highlighted
is a behaviour of the IDE/editor, doesnt matter.
Are you able to compile the code. That does matter.

 

by: dobbinjpPosted on 2008-07-10 at 22:01:00ID: 31474271

Thanks so much for your help! It compiled and all I needed to do was a "set serveroutput on" statement before running your example.

Thanks again!

-Jimmy

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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