drop table if exists t1,t2,t3; create table T1 (id int primary key, Word varchar(40) not null, Index(Word)); INSERT INTO T1 VALUES (1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c'); SELECT * FROM t1; id Word 1 a 2 b 3 c SELECT T1.id from T1 LIMIT 1; id 1 SELECT T2.id from t1 as T2 LIMIT 1; id 1 SELECT T2.id from t1 as t2 LIMIT 1; id 1 RENAME TABLE T1 TO T2; ALTER TABLE T2 ADD new_col int not null; ALTER TABLE T2 RENAME T3; show tables like 't_'; Tables_in_test (t_) t3 drop table t3; create table t1 (a int); select count(*) from T1; count(*) 0 select count(*) from t1; count(*) 0 select count(T1.a) from t1; count(T1.a) 0 select count(bags.a) from t1 as Bags; count(bags.a) 0 drop table t1;