Simple 'SELECT field FROM table_name where TO = "$to"' is returning MySQL error 1064

This problem has got me stumped for a few days now.

I have a MySQL table that looks like this:

+--------+------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|   id   |   to       |  from      |question   | answer    |  time     |
+--------+------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|        |            |            |           |           |           |
| type:  |type:       |type:       |type:      |type:      | type:     |
| int(11)|varchar(26) |varchar(26) |tinyint(3) |tinyint(3) | bigint(20)|
|        |            |            |           |           |           |
|        |            |            |           |           |           |

I am trying to run a simple SELECT but I receive an error. This is the code I am using to run the query:

$to = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['to']);
$query = "SELECT to FROM table_name WHERE to = '$to'";
$result = mysql_query("$query") or die(mysql_error() ."|". mysql_errno());

When I try to run this, this is what I am returned with:

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 'to FROM table_name WHERE to = 'userOne'' at line 1 | 1064

The 1064 at the end is the MySQL error number that is error is associated with. Error 1064 is some sort of parse error (Source: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/error-messages-server.html#error_er_parse_error) But I am not sure what is causing this error. Also note the error is saying there is an error on line 1 but this line is actually line 68 in my code. I am able to run queries similar to SELECT * FROM other_table where name = "$name" on other tables in my database.

Any ideas why this query wont run properly?

Solution

The error is raised because the word to is reserved in mysql as you can read here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/reserved-words.html

Thus, you should change this line:

$query = "SELECT to FROM table_name WHERE to = '$to'";

into this:

$query = "SELECT `to` FROM table_name WHERE `to` = '$to'";