fetch from function returning a ref cursor to record

Question

I have a function in a package that returns a REF CURSOR to a RECORD. I am trying to call this function from a code block. The calling code looks like this:

Answer 1

The function returns a record_cursor, so I would expect a_record should also be a record_cursor. However, it is not clear why you are returning a ref cursor anyway - why can't the function return a record_name type instead?