Oracle REF CURSOR Type Category

To create a cursor variable, begin by identifying a type that belongs to the REF CURSOR category. For example:

dept_cv DeptCursorTyp 
...

Then, create the cursor variable by declaring it to be of the type DeptCursorTyp:

REF CURSOR, then, is a category of data types, rather than a particular data type. Stored procedures can return cursor variables of the REF CURSOR category. This output is equivalent to a database cursor or a JDBC result set.

DECLARE TYPE DeptCursorTyp IS REF CURSOR