Why Use Cursor Variables ?

Primarily, you use the cursor variables to pass the query result sets between the PL/SQL stored subprograms and different clients. Neither PL/SQL nor any of its clients owns a result set; they merely share a pointer to the query work region in which the result set is stored. For instance, Oracle Forms application, an OCI client, and Oracle server can all refer to the same work region.

A query work region remains accessible as long as any cursor variable points to it. Along with, you can pass the value of a cursor variable freely from one scope to other. For illustration, if you pass a host cursor variable to a PL/SQL block embedded in a Pro C program, the work region to which the cursor variable points remains accessible after the block done. If you comprise a PL/SQL engine on the client side, the calls from client to server force no restrictions. For illustration, you can declare a cursor variable on the client side, open & fetch from it on the server side then carry on to fetch from it back on the client side. You can also reduce the network traffic by having a PL/SQL block open (or close) some host cursor variables in a single round trip.