06May 2019 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Query Store, Plan Forcing and Table Variables

SQL Server, T-SQL
This weekend I was in Stockholm in Sweden, talking Query Store and plan forcing with Steinar Anderson, when he mentioned the problems he had while forcing plans that had table variables in them. Don't panic. Of course you can force a plan with a table variable, most of the time. Steinar had a fairly focused problem. Before I go on to explain the issue, let me be really clear, Steinar figured out the issue all on his own. When he outlined the problem, I saw immediately what his conclusion was going to be. What's spurring this blog post is that Steinar said he'd searched on the internet and no one had talked about the issue yet. So, let's talk about it. Plan Forcing With Table Variables First up, let's show…
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01Aug 2016 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

There Is No Difference Between Table Variables, Temporary Tables and Common Table Expressions

SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, T-SQL
I actually saw the above statement posted online. The person making the claim further stated that choosing between these three constructs was "personal preference" and didn't change at all the way SQL Server would choose to deal with them in a query. Let's immediately say, right up front, the title is wrong. Yes, there are very distinct differences between these three constructs. Yes, SQL Server will absolutely deal with these three constructs in different ways. No, picking which one is correct in a given situation is not about personal preference, but rather about the differences in behavior between the three. To illustrate just a few of the differences between these three constructs, I'll use variations of this query: SELECT * FROM Sales.Orders AS o JOIN Sales.OrderLines AS ol ON ol.OrderID = o.OrderID WHERE ol.StockItemID = 227; The…
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13Oct 2009 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Table Variables Are Only in Memory: Fact or Myth

SQL Server, T-SQL
I keep seeing these concepts that have long been disproven, posted again and again on newsgroups as if they were valid information. The latest? Table variables are better because they're only in memory where as temporary tables write to the disk through tempdb. This one is abjectly wrong. I'm not even going to hedge with "it depends." From a macro point of view, there are only a few differences between temporary tables and table variables, statistics being the biggest. Temporary tables have 'em and table variables don't. Other than that, both will reside completely in memory or will swap out to the disk through tempdb, depending on their size. Some of the minor differences, and why you might want to use table variables over temporary tables, table variables won't cause a statement recompile while temporary tables will, table…
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