CURSOR Function for Iterating Through Result Sets

The CURSOR function in the given code is used to define and initialize two cursors: cursor1 and cursor2.

1. cursor1: This cursor is defined to select values from column1 in table1.
2. cursor2: This cursor is defined to select values from column2 in table2.

Both cursors will be used to retrieve and process data from their respective tables.

Using cursors allows you to iterate through the result set of a query one row at a time. Cursors are often used in database programming to perform operations on each row of a result set individually.

Variables variable1 and variable2 are also declared and associated with cursor1 and cursor2 respectively. These variables will be used to store the values retrieved by the cursors.

It's important to note that the given code snippet does not provide information about how the cursors and variables are being used further in the code. The usage of cursors typically involves operations like fetching data, updating values, or performing calculations.

Example:

DECLARE
    cursor1 CURSOR FOR SELECT employee_name FROM employees_table;
    emp_name VARCHAR2(50);
BEGIN
    OPEN cursor1;
    
    LOOP
        FETCH cursor1 INTO emp_name;
        EXIT WHEN cursor1%NOTFOUND;
        
        -- Perform operations on emp_name
        -- e.g. PRINT emp_name;
    END LOOP;
    
    CLOSE cursor1;
END;

In the example above, a cursor named cursor1 is defined to select employee_name from the employees_table. The cursor is then opened and a loop is used to fetch each row's employee_name into the variable emp_name. Operations can be performed on emp_name within the loop. Finally, the cursor is closed to release resources.