Problem
You want to create a MySQL table that contains spaces, but when you try you get the following error message:
ERROR 1064 (42000): 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 '-afterdash' at line 1
Solution
Use the backticks to create the table:
mysql> create database `table-afterdash`; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)