---
title: "What Is a PostgreSQL Temporary View?"
description: "Learn about the concept of a temporary view in PostgreSQL. Explore examples and best practices for PostgreSQL developers."
section: "Postgres guides"
---

> **TimescaleDB is now Tiger Data.**

A **temporary view **in PostgreSQL is a database object that's only available for the duration of a session. It's similar to a regular view, but it disappears once the session ends. Temporary views can be useful when you need to work with a subset of data multiple times within a single session.

However, once your session ends or you disconnect from the database, PostgreSQL will automatically drop the temporary view.

Here's how you create a temporary view:

`CREATE TEMPORARY VIEW temp_view AS 
SELECT column1, column2 
FROM table_name 
WHERE condition;`


A PostgreSQL temporary view is more of a convenience, really. It may help the query writer “clear its head” a little, and it also simplifies the query into multiple parts, much like a common table expression (CTE).

There is one additional vantage, albeit very *very *small: creating a temporary view is not (write-ahead log) WAL-logged, which may seem pretty trivial, but it adds up. While creating a regular view is WAL-logged (just creating it, not selecting the data), a CTE is not—unless it modifies the data.

Want to learn more about PostgreSQL basics? Check out our guide to [Understanding PostgreSQL Functions](https://www.timescale.com/learn/understanding-postgresql-functions/).