17 June 2009, 15:41

OK, I dont know how you did this but it would appear someone was able to create a table in the database called "group" which is a reserved keyword according to:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/reserved-words.html

 mysql> SHOW TABLES LIKE '%group%'
    -> ;
+------------------------------+
| Tables_in_mahara (%group%)   |
+------------------------------+
| group                        | 
| group_member                 | 
| group_member_invite          | 
| group_member_request         | 
| grouptype                    | 
| grouptype_config             | 
| grouptype_cron               | 
| grouptype_event_subscription | 
| grouptype_installed          | 
| grouptype_roles              | 
| view_access_group            | 
| view_autocreate_grouptype    | 
+------------------------------+
12 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> 

How do I describe this table? I am trying to troubleshoot an issue with groups! By the way creating tables using reserved keywords is a really really bad idea.

17 June 2009, 19:51

Firstly, no it's not. It's the database's fault for not understanding the context when you do things like DESCRIBE group;. Postgres handles this fine.

You can do queries against it by quoting it using SQL standard quoting: double quotes. E.g.:

SELECT * FROM "group";

In Mahara, we turn on the SQL standard quoting so we can use double quotes for identifiers. But if you connect to a mysql shell, that mode probably isn't turned on by default, so you will probably have to use the MySQL specific quotes:

SELECT * FROM `group`;

18 June 2009, 10:22

Hi Nigel,

 I learned something from your post, thanks, though the double quotes wont work I think the backticks will, Its been a while since I worked with postgres, I do remember that DBMS, didnt want to start a flame war between the two.

I will give the backticks a shot.

Thanks!