? "SELECT TABLE" Command

Hi, I've got a PHP program I wrote a year or so ago with the oddest line of code. I know I didn't come up with it myself; I must have adapted it from a book or something, but I have checked all the books it could have come from and could not find it in any of them, nor can I find any such command anywhere else. It is an SQL query (probably MySQL, but perhaps SQLite or possibly even PGSQL or mSQL): $query="SELECT TABLE $tablename;"; if (mysql_query($query, $link)) { echo($indent."The table, '$tablename', was successfully opened.<br />\n"); } To make things even stranger, it works fine in the original program that I put it in (although what, if anything, it does is beyond me), but fails when I try it in another program (yes, I took care of $tablename). Does anyone have any idea where this bizarre piece of code came from, what it does, if it's valid, or why it works even though such a command does not even seem to exist? This is has had me baffled for several months now. Thanks. -- Mike W.