Preamble
Oracle CURSOR – When dealing with cursors, you will need to determine your cursor status. Below is a list of cursor attributes that you can use.
| Attributes | Explanation |
| %ISOPEN | – Returns TRUE if the cursor is open, returns FALSE if the cursor is closed. |
| %FOUND | – Returns INVALID_CURSOR if the cursor is declared but not opened; or if the cursor was closed. – Returns NULL if the cursor is open but the selection was not made. – If finished the selection successfully, it returns TRUE. – If no lines are returned, returns FALSE. |
| %NOTFOUND | – Returns INVALID_CURSOR if the cursor is declared but not opened; or if the cursor was closed. – Return NULL if the cursor is open but the selection was not made. – Returns FALSE if the selection was successfully completed. – Returns TRUE if no lines are returned. |
| %ROWCOUNT | – Returns INVALID_CURSOR if the cursor is declared but not opened; or if the cursor was closed. – Returns the number of rows to be returned. – The ROWCOUNT attribute does not give a real number of rows until you pass the entire cursor. In other words, you don’t have to rely on this attribute to tell how many rows a cursor has after it has opened. |
Here is an example of how the Oracle % NOTFOUND attribute can be used.
CREATE OR REPLACE Function FindCourse
( name_in IN varchar2 )
RETURN number
IS
cnumber number;
CURSOR c1
IS
SELECT course_number
FROM courses_tbl
WHERE course_name = name_in;
BEGIN
open c1;
fetch c1 into cnumber;
if c1%notfound then
cnumber := 9999;
end if;
close c1;
RETURN cnumber;
END;
Cursors in Oracle PLSQL
About Enteros
Enteros offers a patented database performance management SaaS platform. It proactively identifies root causes of complex business-impacting database scalability and performance issues across a growing number of clouds, RDBMS, NoSQL, and machine learning database platforms.
The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Enteros Inc. This blog may contain links to the content of third-party sites. By providing such links, Enteros Inc. does not adopt, guarantee, approve, or endorse the information, views, or products available on such sites.
Are you interested in writing for Enteros’ Blog? Please send us a pitch!
RELATED POSTS
How to Transform Financial Operations with Enteros Database Software and Growth Intelligence
- 17 June 2026
- Database Performance Management
Introduction Financial institutions operate in one of the most data-intensive and highly regulated environments in the world. Banks, insurance companies, investment firms, fintech organizations, and financial service providers rely heavily on digital platforms to process transactions, manage risk, deliver customer experiences, and drive business growth. Today’s financial ecosystems support: Digital banking platforms Payment processing systems … Continue reading “How to Transform Financial Operations with Enteros Database Software and Growth Intelligence”
How to Modernize Telecom Cost Attribution with Enteros Database Management Platform and Growth Analytics
Introduction Telecommunications companies operate some of the most complex technology environments in the world. Every call, message, video stream, internet session, billing transaction, and customer interaction generates enormous amounts of operational and financial data. As telecom providers continue expanding 5G networks, cloud services, digital platforms, IoT offerings, and AI-driven customer experiences, infrastructure complexity and operational … Continue reading “How to Modernize Telecom Cost Attribution with Enteros Database Management Platform and Growth Analytics”
How Intelligent Database Monitoring Helps Prevent Costly Application Downtime
In today’s always-on digital economy, application availability is directly tied to business success. Whether supporting e-commerce transactions, financial services, SaaS platforms, healthcare systems, or enterprise operations, modern applications are expected to deliver seamless performance around the clock. Even brief outages can result in lost revenue, damaged customer trust, operational disruption, and reputational harm. At the … Continue reading “How Intelligent Database Monitoring Helps Prevent Costly Application Downtime”
Improving Enterprise IT Efficiency with AI-Powered Database Anomaly Detection
In today’s digital-first enterprise environment, IT teams are under constant pressure to maintain high application availability, optimize infrastructure costs, and ensure seamless performance across increasingly complex systems. Enterprises rely on databases to power critical workloads such as customer transactions, analytics, reporting, automation, and business intelligence. As data volumes and workload complexity grow, even small database … Continue reading “Improving Enterprise IT Efficiency with AI-Powered Database Anomaly Detection”