Using the BULK COLLECT Clause v12

SQL commands that return a result set consisting of a large number of rows may not be operating as efficiently as possible due to the constant context switching that must occur between the database server and the client in order to transfer the entire result set. This inefficiency can be mitigated by using a collection to gather the entire result set in memory which the client can then access. The BULK COLLECT clause is used to specify the aggregation of the result set into a collection.

The BULK COLLECT clause can be used with the SELECT INTO, FETCH INTO and EXECUTE IMMEDIATE commands, and with the RETURNING INTO clause of the DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE commands. Each of these is illustrated in the following sections.