SQL Syntax Error Creating Table

Question

I am getting the following error when I try to create a table in an SQL database:

Failed to create table 'references'
com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: You have an error in 
your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for 
the right syntax to use near 'references(referenceID BIGINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 
referenceText VARCHAR(255)'

Here is the code making the table:

public void createReferencesTable() {
    System.out.println("Creating table '" + REFERENCE_TABLE + "'...");
    Statement stmt = null;
    try {
        stmt = connection.createStatement();
        stmt.executeUpdate("CREATE TABLE " + REFERENCE_TABLE + "("
                + REFERENCE_ID + " BIGINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,"
                + REFERENCE_TEXT + " VARCHAR(255),"
                + REFERENCE_TWEET + " BIGINT NOT NULL,"
                + "PRIMARY KEY (" + REFERENCE_ID + ")"
                + ")");
        System.out.println("Table '" + REFERENCE_TABLE + "' created");
    } catch (SQLException e) {
        System.err.println("Failed to create table '" + REFERENCE_TABLE + "'");
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        if (stmt != null) { 
            try {
                stmt.close();
            } catch (SQLException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } 
        }
    }
}

And here are the declarations of the variables used:

public static final String REFERENCE_TABLE = "references";
public static final String REFERENCE_ID = "referenceID";
public static final String REFERENCE_TEXT = "referenceText";
public static final String REFERENCE_TWEET = "referenceTweet";

Also, I am creating two tables before this one that successfully work with basically the exact same syntax as this one, which is failing. Also, the MySQL server I am putting this databases into is fresh and just set-up, so there shouldn't be any configuration issues, as my program is connecting to the database successfully.

My question is: Why is this giving an error?

Notes: I have tried to do the reference ID line with an identity, but that did not make any difference. As I said before, the two functions each creating a table before this used exactly the same syntax, but gave no errors and successfully created their tables.

Answer 1

references is a reserved word in MySQL. Either use backticks to escape it or use another name.

stmt.executeUpdate("CREATE TABLE `" + REFERENCE_TABLE + "` ("
                                 ^-----------------------^-----------here