Why isn't my table being created in Postgres?

Question

My end goal is complete a Postgresql function that will need to use a temporary table. Trying to create the temporary table itself isn't working because of a syntax error. I'm pretty sure I have the syntax right so can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?

In PGAdmin III, I open a query window and enter the following:

create temporary table tmp_parts
(
  id serial not null,
  part_number character varying(255) not null,
  max_price numeric(19,2) not null
);

When I run the Explain Query feature to test the syntax, I get the following error:

ERROR:  syntax error at or near "serial"
LINE 3:   id serial not null,
             ^
********** Error **********

ERROR: syntax error at or near "serial"
SQL state: 42601
Character: 98

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You cannot use create table in explain. Only the following is allowed:

Any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, VALUES, EXECUTE, DECLARE, or CREATE TABLE AS statement, whose execution plan you wish to see.