Temporary tables
Informix®
CREATE TEMP TABLE
DDL instruction or with SELECT ... INTO TEMP
statement:CREATE TEMP TABLE tt1 ( pkey INT, name VARCHAR(50) )
CREATE TEMP TABLE tt2 ( pkey INT, name VARCHAR(50) ) WITH NO LOG
SELECT * FROM tab1 WHERE pkey > 100 INTO TEMP tt2
Temporary tables are automatically dropped when the SQL session ends, but they can also be
dropped with the DROP TABLE
command. There is no name conflict when several users
create temporary tables with the same name.
BDL reports can create a temporary table when the rows are not sorted externally (by the source SQL statement).
Informix allows you to create indexes on temporary tables. No name conflict occurs when several users create an index on a temporary table by using the same index identifier.
When creating temporary tables in Informix, the
WITH NO LOG
clause can be used to avoid the overhead of recording DML operations in
transaction logs.
Microsoft™ SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server provides local (SQL session wide) or global (database wide) temporary tables by using the '#' or '##' characters as table name prefix.
CREATE
TABLE
statement:CREATE TABLE #temp1 ( kcol INTEGER, .... )
To create and fill a session temporary table in one step, use the SQL Server SELECT ...
INTO
statement:
SELECT * INTO #temp2 FROM customers WHERE ...
CHAR/VARCHAR
columns of SQL Server temporary tables created with CREATE
TABLE #tabname
get by default the collation of the
tempdb
system database. If the collation of the temp table columns does not match
the current database collation, SQL Server will return the error 468 "Cannot resolve the
collation conflict between A and B in the ..."
when comparing CHAR/VARCHAR
columns from permanent and temporary tables, as in the next
query:SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #temptab1 WHERE name IN (SELECT cust_name FROM customers)
To
create columns with the database collation and avoid the 468 collaction mismatch error, one must add
the COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT
clause after CHAR/VARCHAR
and
NCHAR/NVARCHAR
types in the CREATE TABLE
#tabname
statement.
SELECT * INTO
#tabname
SQL Server statement, the character type columns of the temp
table get the current database collation automatically.Solution
In BDL, Informix temporary tables instructions are converted to generate native SQL Server temporary tables.
When Informix emulations are enabled, CREATE TEMP TABLE
tabname
statements executed by Genero programs are converted to
CREATE TABLE #tabname
for SQL Server, and SELECT
<select-list> <select-body> INTO TEMP tabname
statements are
converted to SQL Server SELECT <select-list> INTO #tabname
<select-body>
.
Simple Informix-style SQL statement creating temporary tables can be converted to a native SQL
equivalent instruction. However, complex SQL statements such as SELECT .. INTO TEMP
with subqueries may fail. In such cases, create a view from the complex query and then create the
temp table from the view. Or, disable Informix emulation and use the native SQL syntax to create the
temporary table (EXECUTE IMMEDIATE "/* fglhint_no_ifxemul */ …"
)
With Informix SQL, if the source table has a column defined as SERIAL
or
BIGSERIAL
, a SELECT ... INTO TEMP
will produce a new temp table
with an auto-incremented serial column. With the SELECT … INTO TEMP
emulation for
non-Informix databases, not using the native sequence generators (such as IDENTITY
columns in SQL Server), the resulting temporary table will get a simple INTEGER
or
BIGINT
column, instead of an auto-incremented column.
To avoid 468 SQL errors when comparing character type columns of temp tables and permanent tables, the collation of the temporary table columns must match the collation of the permanent table.
When using a converted Informix SELECT ... INTO TEMP tabname
statement, or a native SQL Server SELECT ... INTO #tabname
statement, the character
columns of the temporary table will automatically get the default collation of the current database,
and the error 468 will not occur when comparing character columns.
CREATE TEMP TABLE tabname
statement, or the native SQL Server CREATE TABLE #tabname
statement, the temporary
table columns get by default the collation of the tempdb
system database, inherited
from the SQL Server instance collation. To avoid 468 errors, only for CREATE TEMP
TABLE
statements, the ODI driver will add the COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT
clause to SQL Server character types correponding to Informix CHAR
,
VARCHAR
, LVARCHAR
and TEXT
type names. For
example, a CREATE TEMP TABLE tt1 ( col1 VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL )
will be converted to
CREATE TABLE #tt1 ( col1 VARCHAR(20) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT NOT NULL )
COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT
clause,
disable Informix emulation switches for character types, and replace the orignal Informix types by
the required SQL Server
types:dbi.database.dsname.datatype.char = false
dbi.database.dsname.datatype.varchar = false
dbi.database.dsname.datatype.text = false
Another
option is to use dynamic SQL and add the fglhint
comment to disable Informix emulations and use directly the native SQL Server
syntax:EXECUTE IMMEDIATE "/* fglhint_no_ifxemul */ CREATE TABLE #tt1 ... "
dbi.database.dsname.ifxemul.temptables = {
true |
false }
For more details see IBM Informix emulation parameters in FGLPROFILE.