select into NULL in PL/SQL

Have looked everywhere for an example or explanation of this without success.

Have a table with a column that can contain NULL. Am using a cursor to loop over every record and load this column value into a variable using SELECT INTO. When I get to a NULL value, I get an ORA-04013 or similar that says "data not found". I actually want to treat NULL values in a particular way in the logic, not ignore them. Otherwise, I could just bind the cursor to a query that leaves out the NULLs.

I guess it makes sense to not want uninitialized variables floating around your PL/SQL code, but Oracle handles NULL values pretty gracefully elsewhere.

Can someone provide either an explanation of why this must work this way or a possible workaround.

Many thanks.

--
Jeff Wilson
jwilson2000_at_home.com
Eugene, Oregon

(541) 684-8590