Oracle/PLSQL: CURSOR FOR Loop

The syntax for the CURSOR FOR Loop is:

FOR record_index in cursor_name
LOOP
   {.statements.}
END LOOP;

You would use a CURSOR FOR Loop when you want to fetch and process every record in a cursor. The CURSOR FOR Loop will terminate when all of the records in the cursor have been fetched.

Here is an example of a function that uses a CURSOR FOR Loop:

CREATE OR REPLACE Function TotalIncome
   ( name_in IN varchar2 )
   RETURN varchar2
IS
   total_val number(6);

   cursor c1 is
     select monthly_income
     from employees
     where name = name_in;

BEGIN

   total_val := 0;

   FOR employee_rec in c1
   LOOP
      total_val := total_val + employee_rec.monthly_income;
   END LOOP;

   RETURN total_val;

END;

In this example, we've created a cursor called c1. The CURSOR FOR Loop will terminate after all records have been fetched from the cursor c1.