Cannot save a table in phpMyAdmin

Question

Currently training on phpMyAdmin, and tried to set up my first set of fields in the database. After I set the fields' names, types, and values, I tried to save and phpMyAdmin returned error:

Error SQL query:

CREATE TABLE  `test`.`Contact ` (
`Contact` INT NOT NULL ,
`Name` VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL ,
`Company` VARCHAR( 30 ) NOT NULL ,
`Email` VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL
) ENGINE = MYISAM CHARACTER SET ASCII COLLATE ascii_general_ci;
MySQL said: Documentation
#1103 - Incorrect table name 'Contact '

Can anyone help to find out what the problem is?

It's been a while since I've done this, but do you need the '' around the column names? — PiousVenom, Aug 29 '13 at 15:33
You've got a space after the table name - maybe remove that? — andrewsi, Aug 29 '13 at 15:38

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:42

7

The space character after the table name is what's causing the error. From MySQL documentation:

Database, table, and column names cannot end with space characters

answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:42

pilsetnieks

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:44

1

Table name can not contain spaces! You have a whitespace after Contact: <<test.Contact (>>

answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:44

Naughty Leopard

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:48

1

To get this to work you need to remove the space from your table name.

As a matter of convention, I would also suggest that you change the name of the Contact field to something more meaningful. I'm assuming that you want to make that your primary key. You should probably name it simply 'id'. You'll also want to set the auto increment and primary key checkboxes so that the field works as you want it to.

The primary key setting makes queries run MUCH faster on this table. It also allows you to do several things with the table which you'd otherwise be posting question on here to figure out why they don't work.

The auto increment setting will allow you to skip that field all together when creating new records. This means you won't need to lookup the highest value and add one every time you want a new record.

answered Aug 29 '13 at 15:48

krowe

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A simple space caused the probelm? Good to know. Thanks! I'll keep the other info in mind. Following the directions of a for Dummies guide. – Michael Lara Aug 29 '13 at 15:54
Yes, that is all it takes. Another way you could've fixed this is by removing the backticks altogether. Those are only really needed when you have special characters in your table\field names. I'd also suggest not ever using special characters in your table\field names to ensure that is never a problem to begin with. May not seem like a big deal now but after a few hundred tables you'll see that it is a huge waste of time. As long as you are using a tool like phpMyAdmin it'll probably keep adding them for you anyway but that's it's problem not yours. – krowe Aug 29 '13 at 16:01

Cannot save a table in phpMyAdmin

3 Answers3