Question

I come from a SQL Server background and thought that it might mean it was a temporary table, but after reading up on MySql temp tables I don’t think that’s true.

I’m seeing it in the following context:

SELECT ID, Name FROM #_SomeName

UPDATE

This query is defined in a PHP string and then run against the MySQL Database. I’m not sure if that would make a difference or not…

here is the PHP code i’m running:

$query="select id, name from #__SomeName";
$db=&JFactory::getDBO();
$db->setQuery($query);

Answer 1

In MySQL # is an end-of-line comment:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/comments.html

In JFactory, #__ is used as a place holder. See here:

http://docs.joomla.org/How_to_use_the_database_classes_in_your_script