Using Stored Procedures
A stored procedure is a named set of PL/SQL statements designed to perform an action. Unlike functions, stored procedures do not return values, but they can accept values as input.
A ref cursor is a PL/SQL data type whose value is an address that represents the memory location of a query work area on the database server. A query work area can be thought of as the result set, or a row set, on the server; it is the location where the results of a query are stored in server memory. In essence, a ref cursor is a handle to a result set on the server.
A ref cursor can be used in a stored procedure to show a result set. In this tutorial, Sheila creates a stored procedure that uses a ref cursor to show a job history list for a particular job title. A ref cursor is defined, and the cursor is created by using an input parameter for the job title.