Joining 5 tables vs. using temp table

Hi I have a tree hierarchy like this Reg / \\ Div1..n Div / \\ District1...n District / \\ Local Mgr1...n Local Mgr / \\ usr1... usrn usr1. usrn I have one other big table "tasresult" where it has "date" and "userid" and transaction type. If Region Manager querys, it should give "divMgrID" and each type of transaction and #of times. Basically it adds up subtree of users tasks as if divMgr did it. I can do same query by using cursor pointing to "divmgrID" and adding all users into Temp table and joinging temp table one time with "taskresult" instead of 4 more joins . Then I drop temp table and recreate for each divmgrID. If I use joins, how do I give final results adding even tasks performed by "LocalMgrs, DistMgrs, DivMgrs" This is the SQL query for joins select div.div_mgr_id, t.taskid,count(*) from reg_mgr r, div_mgr div, dis_mgr dis,loc_mgr l, usr_list usr,taskresult t where r.reg_serial = "1"div.div_serial = dis.div_serial and dis.dis_serial = l.dis_serial and l.loc_serial = usr.loc_serial and usr.user_id = t.userid and group by 1,2 order by 1,2 What is the performance gain? Is it better always to use temp table. Could you please mail me Thank you Sukumar Konduru sukumar@gte.net