What's wrong with this MySQL query?

Question

I am getting a syntax error for my MySQL (5.5.24) query.

The error is:

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ''topics'( 'topicid' int unsigned not null auto_increment primary key, 'creator' at line 1

The query is:

create table 'topics'(
 'topicid' int unsigned not null auto_increment primary key,
 'creator' varchar(255) not null,
 'createtime' datetime not null,
 'content' text not null
);

What's wrong?

Answer 1

You are using the wrong quotes. Use ` instead of '

CREATE TABLE `topics` (
 `topicid` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
 `creator` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
 `createtime` datetime NOT NULL,
 `content` text NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

I also would recommend specifying the engine.

Answer 2

The error is the single quotes around the table and column names. If you want to escape these names use back ticks (`) not quotes.

Answer 3

Why are you using quotes? Try

CREATE TABLE topics (
 topicid int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
 creator varchar(255) NOT NULL,
 createtime datetime NOT NULL,
 content text NOT NULL
);