Temporary Tables vs. Table Variables

There are three major theoretical differences between temporary tables:

create table #T (…)

And table variables:

declare @T table (…)

The first difference is that transaction logs are not recorded for the table variables. Hence, they are out of scope of the transaction mechanism, as is clearly visible from this example:

create table #T (s varchar(128))
declare @T table (s varchar(128))
insert into #T select 'old value #'
insert into @T select 'old value @'
begin transaction
update #T set s='new value #'
update @T set s='new value @'
rollback transaction
select * from #T
select * from @T

s
---------------
old value #

s
---------------
new value @

After declaring our temporary table #T and our table-variable @T, we assign each one with the same "old value" string. Then, we begin a transaction that updates their contents. At this point, both will now contain the same "new value" string. But when we rollback the transaction, as you can see, the table-variable @T retained its value instead of reverting back to the "old value" string. This happened because, even though the table-variable was updated within the transaction, it is not a part of the transaction itself.

The second major difference is that any procedure with a temporary table cannot be pre-compiled, while an execution plan of procedures with table variables can be statically compiled in advance. Pre-compiling a script gives a major advantage to its speed of execution. This advantage can be dramatic for long procedures, where recompilation can be too pricy.

Finally, table variables exist only in the same scope as variables. Contrary to the temporary tables, they are not visible in inner stored procedures and in exec(string) statements. Also, they cannot be used in an insert/exec statement.

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