Re: PL/SQL temp tables

PL/SQL Tables are (almost) as waste of time. They are not really tables, but only one-dimensional arrays. Use them exactly as you would use a 1-D array in a 3GL. I think Oracle 8 is supposed to add more functionality to them, but currently they are pretty lame.  

For temporary storage, I define a permanent table (called TEMP_xxxx) that includes all the fields you want to retrieve plus userid and a timestamp (which form the keys). The timestamp is generated into a local variable and used when creating each temporary table record. Oracle is good at letting multiple users work with this table at the same time, using their own records. When you're finished, just delete the current set of records and leave the table there.  

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