After a cursor variable is opened, rows may be retrieved from the result set by using the FETCH statement.

In the following example, a FETCH statement has been added to the previous example so now the result set is returned into two variables and then displayed. Note that the cursor attributes used to determine cursor state of static cursors can also be used with cursor variables.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE emp_by_dept (
    p_deptno        emp.deptno%TYPE
)
IS
    emp_refcur      SYS_REFCURSOR;
    v_empno         emp.empno%TYPE;
    v_ename         emp.ename%TYPE;
BEGIN
    OPEN emp_refcur FOR SELECT empno, ename FROM emp WHERE deptno = p_deptno;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('EMPNO    ENAME');
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('-----    -------');
    LOOP
        FETCH emp_refcur INTO v_empno, v_ename;
        EXIT WHEN emp_refcur%NOTFOUND;
        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_empno || '     ' || v_ename);
    END LOOP;
        ...