%NOTFOUND

The %NOTFOUND is logical, opposite of the %FOUND. The %NOTFOUND yields FALSE if the last fetch returned a row, or TRUE when the final fetch failed to return a row. In the illustration below, you use the %NOTFOUND to exit a loop if FETCH fails to return a row:

LOOP

FETCH c1 INTO my_ename, my_sal, my_hiredate;

EXIT WHEN c1%NOTFOUND;

...

END LOOP;

Before the first fetch, the %NOTFOUND evaluates to NULL. Therefore, if FETCH never executes effectively, the loop is never existed. That is as the EXIT WHEN statement executes only if it's WHEN condition is true. To be secure, you might want to use the EXIT statement below instead:

EXIT WHEN c1%NOTFOUND OR ci%NOTFOUND IS NULL;

When a cursor or cursor variable is not open, referencing it with the %NOTFOUND raises

INVALID_CURSOR.