PL SQL: How to populate a cursor in loop - oracle11g

Question

I have a scenario to implement where in we will have an SP with two parameters
1) In parameter of array of Varchar2
2) Cursor -- Out parameter
We have populate the cursor only for each Value passed in array and this opened/populated cursor will be used by Java. But what i have found till now is, if we have to process an array then it should have to be done using loop.
For ex:
Open Cursor_Name
For
For index In Arrar_Parameter.FIRST .. Arrar_Parameter.LAST
LOOP
SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE EmpId = Arrar_Parameter[i] -------> This needs to be looped and not sure if this will work
END LOOP
Can we have some thing like this
Open Cursor_Name
For
SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE EmpId IN (Arrar_Parameter values) ------> To fetch/put all the array values at once without loop.
Kindly suggest hot to populate cursor in this scenario

Answer 1

Assuming your array parameter is a schema-level varray or nested table, you can use a table collection expression:
The table_collection_expression lets you inform Oracle that the value of collection_expression should be treated as a table for purposes of query and DML operations. The collection_expression can be a subquery, a column, a function, or a collection constructor. Regardless of its form, it must return a collection value—that is, a value whose type is nested table or varray. This process of extracting the elements of a collection is called collection unnesting.
This uses a built-in varray type but you can substitute your own:
create procedure procedure_name (
array_parameter sys.odcivarchar2list, cursor_name out sys_refcursor
) as
begin
open cursor_name for
select e.*
from table (array_parameter) a
join emp e on e.empid = a.column_value;
end;
/
You can also use in if you prefer:
create procedure procedure_name (
array_parameter sys.odcivarchar2list, cursor_name out sys_refcursor
) as
begin
open cursor_name for
select *
from emp
where empid in (select column_value from table (array_parameter));
end;
/
If it is a nested table you can also use the member of syntax:
create type my_varchar2_table as table of varchar2(30);
/
create procedure procedure_name (
array_parameter my_varchar2_table, cursor_name out sys_refcursor
) as
begin
open cursor_name for
select *
from emp
where empid member of array_parameter;
end;
/