CREATE TEMP TABLE

Creates a temporary table that is automatically dropped at the end of the session.

• A temporary table is visible only within the session that created it and is automatically dropped, with all data vacuumed, when the session ends.

   - In cases where automatic cleanup of temporary tables fails—for example, due to a query node crash—you can use the [FUSE_VACUUM_TEMPORARY_TABLE](/tidb-cloud-lake/sql/fuse-vacuum-temporary-table.md) function to manually clean up leftover files from temporary tables.
  

• To show the existing temporary tables in the session, query the system.temporary_tables system table. See Example-1.
• A temporary table with the same name as a normal table takes precedence, hiding the normal table until dropped. See Example-2.
• No privileges are required to create or operate on a temporary table.
• TiDB Cloud Lake supports creating temporary tables with the Fuse Engine.
• To create temporary tables using LakeSQL, ensure you are using the latest version of LakeSQL.

Syntax

CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] { TEMPORARY | TEMP } TABLE
       [ IF NOT EXISTS ]
       [ <database_name>. ]<table_name>
       ...

The omitted parts follow the syntax of CREATE TABLE.

Examples

Example-1

This example demonstrates how to create a temporary table and verify its existence by querying the system.temporary_tables system table:

CREATE TEMP TABLE my_table (id INT, description STRING);

SELECT * FROM system.temporary_tables;

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ database │   name   │       table_id      │ engine │
├──────────┼──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────┤
│ default  │ my_table │ 4611686018427407904 │ FUSE   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Example-2

This example demonstrates how a temporary table with the same name as a normal table takes precedence. When both tables exist, operations target the temporary table, effectively hiding the normal table. Once the temporary table is dropped, the normal table becomes accessible again:

-- Create a normal table
CREATE TABLE my_table (id INT, name STRING);

-- Insert data into the normal table
INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (1, 'Alice'), (2, 'Bob');

-- Create a temporary table with the same name
CREATE TEMP TABLE my_table (id INT, description STRING);

-- Insert data into the temporary table
INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (1, 'Temp Data');

-- Query the table: This will access the temporary table, hiding the normal table
SELECT * FROM my_table;

┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│        id       │    description   │
├─────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│               1 │ Temp Data        │
└────────────────────────────────────┘

-- Drop the temporary table
DROP TABLE my_table;

-- Query the table again: Now the normal table is accessible
SELECT * FROM my_table;

┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│        id       │       name       │
├─────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│               1 │ Alice            │
│               2 │ Bob              │
└────────────────────────────────────┘