Final answer:
A temporary table in SQL is a table that is only available for a short time before it's deleted automatically. It is useful for storing intermediate results or temporary data during complex queries or data manipulations.
Step-by-step explanation:
A temporary table in SQL is a table that is only available for a short time before it's deleted automatically. It is created and used within a specific session or transaction and is automatically dropped when the session or transaction ends. Temporary tables are useful for storing intermediate results or temporary data during complex queries or data manipulations.
For example, if you need to perform a series of calculations on a large dataset, you can first insert the relevant data into a temporary table, perform the calculations, and then retrieve the final result from the temporary table.
Temporary tables can be created in various ways depending on the database system you're using, such as using the CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statement in MySQL or the CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE statement in Oracle.