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Category: Temp Tables

Preconceived Notions around Temp Tables

Published 2022-01-12 by Kevin Feasel

Two overlapping posts on temp tables? Order up! First, Deb Melkin realizes tempdb is like a hotel room:

I was always taught to clean up after myself so I thought dropping my local temp tables after creating them in a proc did that. I knew that once the session was dropped, the table no longer was there so SQL Server would eventually take care of it. But then you had the cases where you ran the same stored proc multiple times in the same session so you wanted to make sure the table was gone at the end of your procedure to prevent issues.

Second, Deepthi Goguri learns the importance of getting temp tables right the first time:

I always had an opinion of changing the schema of the temp tables or adding indexes later after the temp table creation doesn’t affect in any way but it’s actually not a good idea. Yes, you heard that right. Altering or adding indexes later after temp table creation within the stored procedures will be marked for deletion and so the cached temp table metadata cannot be reused. It is suggestable to create the index as you create the temp table using the inline index syntax.

Both reference Pam Lahoud’s tempdb talk at EightKB (video), so check that out too.

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Permission Requirements for Temp Tables

Published 2022-01-07 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci looks at permissions:

Managing permissions is a constant issue for Database Administrators, but rarely do DBAs consider permissions for tempdb. Everybody’s looking for something, but how often do you get requests for “access to read and write in the tempdb database”? Like…never?

OK, but what if you were asked the subject of this post in a job interview? Even if you’ve worked with SQL Server for ages, would you know how to answer this? Moreover, would you know why the answer should give you some concern?

Read on for the answers.

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tempdb Usage and Recommendations

Published 2021-12-07 by Kevin Feasel

Chad Callihan has a two-parter for us. First up is a look at tempdb usage:

The tempdb database in SQL Server holds a little bit of everything over its existence. There can be the temporary tables that you created, work tables like spools that SQL Server creates, version store data, and much more in tempdb at any time.

Is your tempdb having a hard time keeping up with the workload on your SQL Server? How can you find out what is using tempdb the most?

Chad also recommends picking the right number of files for tempdb:

We just made it through Thanksgiving dinner and there’s another big Christmas dinner coming up in few weeks. Sometimes you might find that one plate is not enough to hold all of that food. Just as multiple plates can make big dinners easier to manage, multiple tempdb data files can make the SQL Server workload easier to manage.

Read on to see how to track and modify this setting.

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External Temp Tables and Plan Reuse

Published 2021-10-20 by Kevin Feasel

David Fowler has a warning about stored procedures which use temp tables created by other processes:

Here’s an interesting issue that recently came up. We were seeing very high compilations and recompilations on a server to the point that it started causing us some very serious issues (admittedly this wasn’t the sole issue but it was certainly a contributing factor, the other factors were also very interesting so I might look at those in another post).

After looking in the plan cache we could see a very high number of single use plans for a particular stored procedure. Now as you probably know, SQL will usually cache an execution plan and use it over and over whenever a particular query runs. SQL’s lazy and it doesn’t want to bother compiling queries unless it really has to.

So what was going on, why wasn’t SQL able to reuse the cached plan?

Read on for the solution, as well as the impact of the problem and ways to work around it.

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The Basics of Table Variables

Published 2021-08-06 by Kevin Feasel

Jared Poche explains some of the value of table variables:

In having a talk reviewed recently, it was suggested I spend more time defining some of the subject I touched on. It occurred if I should go over (or at least introduce) these ideas during a talk for a SQL Saturday audience, some might find a post on the subject useful. Hence my recent post on key lookups.

Another such topic is table variables. I use table variables frequently at my current job, but they came up very infrequently when I worked at CSS in Microsoft. I remember the conversations about them being very simple at the time, as in, “you should just use temp tables instead.” But there is a lot of utility with table variables, and they could be a useful arrow in your quiver.

Click through for the full story.

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15 tempdb Notes

Published 2021-06-02 by Kevin Feasel

Deepthi Goguri summarizes a detailed session from Bob Ward:

While I was preparing for my Tempdb presentation, I learned many interesting facts about Tempdb. Thanks so much Bob Ward (t|g) for providing me with the resources to prepare for my presentation. Bob Ward has presented an amazing 3 hour session about Tempdb for the PASS Summit couple of years ago. This information is invaluable.

Read on for 15 notes of interest.

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What to Do with Temp Tables in Stored Procedures

Published 2021-06-01 by Kevin Feasel

Chad Callihan invokes Betteridge’s Law of Headlines:

Generally speaking, it’s best to put things away that aren’t being used. Don’t keep indexes that aren’t getting utilized because they are taking up disk space and still have to be kept up to date with changes. A table is still loaded up with old data that’s not being used but needs kept? Maybe it’s time for options like an archive database or partitioning.

While it’s not on the same level of importance, one related argument I’ve seen and been in is how to handle temp tables in stored procedures. Do you drop them at the end of a stored procedure or do you leave them to be cleaned up by SQL Server? Is one way better for performance than the other? Let’s do some testing and see what we find out.

Read on for the answer.

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Temp Tables and Nested Stored Procedures

Published 2021-03-29 by Kevin Feasel

John Morehouse takes us through a catch in creating temp tables inside nested stored procedures:

SQL Server offers a lot of flexibility when working with objects like stored procedures and temporary tables.  One of the capabilities is to allow for stored procedures to call other stored procedures.  This is called “nesting” one stored procedure within the context of the calling stored procedure.  In addition, you can instantiate a temporary table from within the parent procedure that can be utilized within the context of the child procedure.

But wait! I’m not done yet!

You can also instantiate a temporary table with the same name as the parent temporary table within the child procedure.  But there is a catch!

I’ve done the former (and more frequently, had to support when somebody else did the former), but I don’t think I’ve done the latter. Mostly because it seems like it’s an invitation for problems.

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