drop table if exists `about:text`; create table `about:text` ( _id int not null auto_increment, `about:text` varchar(255) not null default '', primary key (_id) ); show create table `about:text`; Table Create Table about:text CREATE TABLE `about:text` ( `_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `about:text` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', PRIMARY KEY (`_id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 COLLATE=latin1_swedish_ci drop table `about:text`; use test; drop table if exists t1; create table t1(a int) engine=myisam; insert into t1 values(1); "We get an error because the table is in the definition cache" create table t1(a int, b int); ERROR 42S01: Table 't1' already exists "Flush the cache and recreate the table anew to be able to drop it" flush tables; show open tables like "t%"; Database Table In_use Name_locked create table t1(a int, b int, c int); "Try to select from the table. This should not crash the server" select count(a) from t1; count(a) 0 drop table t1;