pl/sql tables and cursors

I am attempting to load 15000 + records from a temporary table declared as 25 columns of varchar2(60) into a pl/sql table for later processing into production tables.

I'm creating a cursor with select * from the temporary table to populate the pl/sql table using a cursor for loop.

I do this twice, once with a cursor in a select statement using where exists against the temporary table and production table to populate an update pl/sql table and a select where not exists to populate a add new record pl/sql table.

This method seems to work fairly well using small amounts of test data...2000 records or less. But when I do a full scale test using all 15000 plus records, it hangs the DB and I have to shut it down then restart it. Sometimes it will work properly on the add routine and sometimes on the update routine but never both. I need to do the update this way to make sure I don't update an existing value with a blank from the update file, so I have to perform null checks on the incoming data. This is essentially a reload every day so all 15000 + records are updated daily. (I can't drop and reload).

 I'm using the default setup for the database when it was installed.

I guess my question is:

1. How many rows can a cursor hold?
2. How many rows can a pl/sql table hold?

I know this also depends on number of columns and their datatypes, I can't seem to find this information in the documentation.

Thanx for any info supplied...

1. Davidson dradave_at_ionet.net