Difference between Temporary table and Container

Microsoft Dynamics AX supports a special data type called a container. This data type can be used just as you would use a temporary table.

• Data Retrieval:

Data in containers are stored and retrieved sequentially, but a temporary table enables you to define indexes to speed up data retrieval.

• Performance:

Containers provide slower data access if you are working with many records. However, if you are working with only a few records, use a container.

• Method Call:

Another important difference between temporary tables and containers is how they are used in method calls. When you pass a temporary table into a method call, it is passed by reference. Containers are passed by value. When a variable is passed by reference, only a pointer to the object is passed into the method. When a variable is passed by value, a new copy of the variable is passed into the method.

If the computer has a limited amount of memory, it might start swapping memory to disk, slowing down application execution. When you pass a variable into a method, a temporary table may provide better performance than a container.