Creation of Oracle temporary table with same table structure to that of a existing table - oracle

Question

How to create a global temporary table with same table structure to that of a existing table?
I know this concept is available in SQL server like "select * into #temp123 from abc". But I want to perform the same in Oracle.

Answer 1

Create global temporary table mytemp
as
select * from myTable
where 1=2

Answer 2

Global temporary tables in Oracle are very different from temporary tables in SQL Server. They are permanent data structures, it is merely the data in them which is temporary (limited to the session or transaction, depending on how a table is defined).
Therefore, the correct way to use global temporary tables is very different to how we use temporary tables in SQL Server. The CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE statement is a one-off exercise (like any other table). Dropping and recreating tables on the fly is bad practice in Oracle, which doesn't stop people wanting to do it.
Given the creation of a global temporary table should a one-off exercise, there is no real benefit to using the CREATE TABLE ... AS SELECT syntax. The statement should be explicitly defined and the script stored in source control like any other DDL.
You have tagged your question [oracle18c]. If you are really using Oracle 18c you have a new feature open to you, private temporary tables, which are closer to SQL Server temporary tables. These are tables which are genuinely in-memory and are dropped automatically at the end of the transaction or session (again according to definition). These are covered in the Oracle documentation but here are the headlines.
Creating a private temporary table data with a subset of data from permanent table T23:
create table t23 (
id number primary key
, txt varchar2(24)
);
insert into t23
select 10, 'BLAH' from dual union all
select 20, 'MEH' from dual union all
select 140, 'HO HUM' from dual
/
create private temporary table ORA$PTT_t23
on commit preserve definition
as
select * from t23
where id > 100;
The ORA$PTT prefix is mandatory (although it can be changed by setting the init.ora parameter PRIVATE_TEMP_TABLE_PREFIX, but why bother?
There after we can execute any regular DML on the table:
select * from ORA$PTT_t23;
The big limitation is that we cannot use the table in static PL/SQL. The table doesn't exist in the data dictionary as such, and so the PL/SQL compiler hurls - even for anonymous blocks:
declare
rec t23%rowtype;
begin
select *
into rec
from ORA$PTT_t23';
dbms_output.put_line('id = ' || rec.id);
end;
/
ORA-06550: line 6, column 10: PL/SQL: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
Any reference to a private temporary table in PL/SQL must be done with dynamic SQL:
declare
n pls_integer;
begin
execute immediate 'select id from ORA$PTT_t23' into n;
dbms_output.put_line('id = ' || n);
end;
/
Basically this restricts their usage to SQL*Plus (or sqlcl scripts which run a series of pure SQL statements. So, if you have a use case which fits that, then you should check out private temporary tables. However, please consider that Oracle is different from SQL Server in many aspects, not least its multi-version consistency model: readers do not block writers. Consequently, there is much less need for temporary tables in Oracle.

Answer 3

In the SQL Server's syntax the prefix "#" (hash) in the table name #temp123 means - create temporary table that is only accessible via the current session ("##" means "Global").
To achive exactly the same thing in Oracle you can use private temporary tables:
SQL> show parameter private_temp_table
NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
private_temp_table_prefix string ORA$PTT_
create table mytab as
select 1 id, cast ('aaa' as varchar2 (32)) name from dual
;
create private temporary table ora$ptt_mytab on commit preserve definition as
select * from mytab where 1=0
;
Private TEMPORARY created.
Afterwards you can use these tables in SQL and PL/SQL blocks:
declare
r mytab%rowtype;
begin
insert into ora$ptt_mytab values (2, 'bbb');
select id + 1, name||'x' into r from ora$ptt_mytab where rownum = 1;
insert into ora$ptt_mytab values r;
end;
/
select * from mytab
union all
select * from ora$ptt_mytab;
ID NAME
---------- --------------------------------
1 aaa
2 bbb
3 bbbx
Some important restrictions on private temporary tables:
The name must always be prefixed with whatever is defined with the parameter PRIVATE_TEMP_TABLE_PREFIX. The default is ORA$PTT_.
You cannot reference PTT in the static statements of the named PL/SQL blocks, e.g. packages, functions, or triggers.
The %ROWTYPE attribute is not applicable to that table type.
You cannot define column with default values.