Suzy, Personally, I'm a huge fan of ref cursors, and with many current releases of Oracle, ref cursors are the only way to return arrays to a client program.
Are you returning arrays or just single variables to your C program? Performance sort of depends on clarifying this point first. If he's generating multiple OUT parameters, it would be much easier for him to use REF cursors. With our applications, I use them all the time and I would be more than happy to send you some code examples, if you'd like. Best regards, Melanie -----Original Message----- Vordos, Suzy Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 4:35 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L I've RTFM'd looking for advantages/disadvantages of ref_cursors vs. out parameters. We have a developer who insists on using out parameters instead of ref_cursors. He hasn't coded PL/SQL since Oracle7. The application program that calls the PL/SQL package is written in C#. I'm at a loss for words. I'm not a PL/SQL expert, but it seems that ref_cursors have the advantage of not needing to define PL/SQL variables, and that it's easier to pass a result set back to the calling program. I also assume that ref_cursors have better performance. Can someone clarify this? Maybe I'm confused. Thanks, Suzy -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Vordos, Suzy INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Melanie Caffrey INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
