3208
MySQLERRORNotableDDLHIGH confidence

Incorrect column name

Production Risk

Low — DDL error.

Why it happens
  1. 1Column name contains invalid characters or exceeds the maximum allowed length.
  2. 2Column name is an empty string or contains only whitespace.
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
ALTER TABLE t1 ADD COLUMN '' INT;

expected output

ERROR 3208 (HY000): Incorrect column name ''.

Fix

Use a valid column name

Use a valid column name
ALTER TABLE t1 ADD COLUMN valid_name INT;

Why this works

Column names must be non-empty and comply with MySQL identifier rules.

What not to do

Sources
Official documentation ↗

MySQL 8.0 — 3208 ER_WRONG_COLUMN_NAME2

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