When CTEs Don’t Work, Try Temp Tables – #TSQL2sday

This article by Brent Ozar discusses a common T-SQL performance issue: when Common Table Expressions (CTEs) produce inefficient execution plans, switching to temp tables can improve performance. Using a real-world example with SQL Server 2025 and the Stack Overflow database, the author demonstrates how a CTE query that finds the most popular user location and then retrieves top users by reputation leads to excessive logical reads. He explains how to analyze the execution plan to spot estimate mismatches and suggests using temp tables to force a more efficient processing order. The article is part of the #TSQL2sday blog party and provides practical query tuning advice for SQL developers.