Schrödingers MySQL table: exists, yet it does not

Question

I am having the weirdest error of all.

Sometimes, when creating or altering tables, I get the \'table already exists\' error. However, DROP TABLE returns \'#1051 - u

Answer 1

I was having this problem with one particular table. Reading the possible solutions i've did some steps like:

• Search for orphan files: didn't exist anyone;
• execute: show full tables in database;: didn't see the problematic one;
• execute: describe table;: returned table doesn't exist;
• execute: SELECT * FROM information_schema.TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME='table';: returned Empty set;
• Search by the phpMyAdmin manually the query above: didn't exist;

And, after those steps, i check again with the show tables; and... vualá! the problematic table was gone. I could create it and drop it with the same problematic name with no problem, and i didn't have even to restart the server! Weird...