What is a Temporary Table and its need in SQL?

SQL provides a good feature to store data or table temporarily in memory. Temporary Table means to store the complete or sub-part of a table in different table or database. This table store this information temporarily or a certain time of period.

Every DB Developer uses temporary tables. Temporary tables are very useful when you have a large number of rows in a table and you need to retrieve some records from the table, again and again, you need a hell of a time for that and also write a query again and again. It is very headache for a developer. You simply create a temp table for that data and just fetch that table rather than a big table. Temporary tables improve your DB performance and maintainability.

How to Create a Temporary Table in SQL

SQL provide a query for creating a temporary table in database, the syntax is given below       

                SELECT name of columns

                INTO #temporary table name

                FROM name of table

                Where conditions [ optional ]

SELECT clause: In the select statement you can write the name of columns those you want to display in-store in a temporary table.

INTO clause: In into clause write the temporary table name.

FROM Clause: In into clause write the table name that data you want to store in a temporary table.

WHERE Clause: In where clause writes the condition it’s optional.

Example of a Temporary Table Query

How to create a Temp table, let’s spouse a products table exists in my database, then for temp table query is given below

SELECT product_name, list_price

INTO #trek_products — temporary table name

FROM products

WHERE brand_id = 9 s;

How to create Temp Table in SQL Server

One way to create a temp table in SQL is, using create a table just like a simple table. Example of temp table is given below using create table clause.

CREATE TABLE #temp Table Name (

Attribute1 dataType,

Attribute2 dataType,

Attribute3  dataType,

) ;

How to create Temp Table in SQL Developer

How can we make the temporary table data is transient? Firstly, the information is handiest visible within the session which inserts it; any other session will see an empty table. Secondly, the statistics can persist for either a transaction or the session, depending on the ON COMMIT clause; the default is ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS.

                CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE temp_Table AS

                SELECT * FROM real_Table ;

How to create Temp Table in SQL Procedure

Before creating a temp table we can declare a temporary table like this

The temporary table will be declared as below:

Declare @temp table(

                staffid varchar(10),

                attstatus char(1)

)

How to create Temp Table in SQL with Example

Below is the complete example of a Temporary table, with parameters or attributes name and data types,

CREATE table # Color (

Colour varchar (10) PRIMARY key

)

INSERT INTO #color SELECT ‘Red’ UNION SELECT ‘White’

UNION SELECT ‘green’ UNION SELECT ‘Yellow’ UNION SELECT ‘blue’

DROP TABLE #color

How do you create a temp table and insert data in SQL?

Syntax
  1. Create Local temporary table.
  2. Create Table #myTable (id Int , Name nvarchar(20))
  3. Insert data into Temporary Tables.
  4. Insert into #myTable Values (1,’Saurabh’);
  5. Insert into #myTable Values (2,’Darshan’);
  6. Insert into #myTable Values (3,’Smiten’);
  7. — Select Data from the Temporary Tables.
  8. Select * from #myTable.

What is a temporary table in SQL?

A temporary table is a base table that is not stored in the database, but instead exists only while the database session in which it was created is active. You must add data to a temporary table with SQL INSERT commands.

How do I create a global temp table in SQL Server?

A global temporary table is created using CREATE TABLE statement with the table name prefixed with a double number sign (##table_name). In SQL Server, global temporary tables are visible to all sessions (connections). So if you create a global temporary table in one session, you can start using it in other sessions.

Is CTE a temp table?

Temp Tables are physically created in the tempdb database. These tables act as the normal table and also can have constraints, an index like normal tables. CTE is a named temporary result set which is used to manipulate the complex sub-queries data. This is created in memory rather than the Tempdb database.

How do I know if a global temp table exists?

Check If Temporary Table or Temp Table Exists in SQL Server Database
  1. create table TestTable(id int)
  2. create table #TestTable(id int)
  3. select * from tempdb.sys.tables where name like ‘#TestTable%’
  4. select object_id(‘tempdb..#TestTable’,’U’)
  5. if object_id(‘tempdb..#TestTable’,’U’) is not null.

Do you need to drop temp tables?

No you don’t need to drop temp tables. That notwithstanding, I tend to do a conditional drop at the beginning of a sproc and it has nothing to do with any effect on the spoc. Rather, they are an artifact from development and testing prior to conversion to a stored procedure.

How do you check if a table exists in SQL?

To check if a table exists in SQL Server, you can use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA. TABLES table. You can use this table with an IF THEN clause do determine how your query responds whether or not a table exists.

How do you use a temp table?

To define a temporary table, we use the INTO statement after the SELECT statement. The name of a temporary table must start with a hash (#). Now, to see where this table exists; go to “Object Explorer -> Databases -> System Databases-> tempdb -> Temporary Tables”.

How do I join a temp table in SQL?

What is the difference between a temp table and table variable?

A Temp table is easy to create and back up data. Table variable involves the effort when you usually create the normal tables. Table variable will store in the physical memory for some of the data, then later when the size increases it will be moved to the tempdb.

Can we create temp table in view?

No, a view consists of a single SELECT statement. You cannot create or drop tables in a view. Maybe a common table expression (CTE) can solve your problem. CTEs are temporary result sets that are defined within the execution scope of a single statement and they can be used in views.

How do I create a temp view?

CREATE LOCAL TEMPORARY VIEW
  1. Syntax. CREATE [OR REPLACE] LOCAL TEMP[ORARY] VIEW view. query.
  2. Parameters. OR REPLACE. Specifies to overwrite the existing view view‑name.
  3. Privileges. See Creating Views.
  4. Example. The following CREATE LOCAL TEMPORARY VIEW statement creates the temporary view myview .

Can we create temporary table in stored procedure?

Stored procedures can reference temporary tables that are created during the current session. Within a stored procedure, you cannot create a temporary table, drop it, and then create a new temporary table with the same name.

What is the difference between CTE and temp tables which one is better?

2 Answers. Probably the biggest difference between a CTE and a temp table, is that the CTE has an execution scope of a single SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or CREATE VIEW statement. Essentially you can’t reuse the CTE, like you can with temp tables.

Are CTEs faster than subqueries?

The performance of CTEs and subqueries should, in theory, be the same since both provide the same information to the query optimizer. One difference is that a CTE used more than once could be easily identified and calculated once. The results could then be stored and read multiple times.

Which is faster CTE or view?

According to your updated question, views will be the right choice. Dealing with 3.5 million rows in CTE will create extra overhead on TempDb which will eventually slow down SQL Server performance. Remember, CTE is a disposable view hence no statistics are stored and you can’t create Indexes too.

Why is a temp table a good idea?

Temp tables are usually better when: You have to refer to the output multiple times, or. When you need to pass data between stored procedures, or. When you need to break a query up into phases to isolate unpredictable components that dramatically affect the behavior of the rest of the query.

Are CTE faster than temp tables?

Temp tables are always on disk – so as long as your CTE can be held in memory, it would most likely be faster (like a table variable, too). But then again, if the data load of your CTE (or temp table variable) gets too big, it’ll be stored on disk, too, so there’s no big benefit.