sql - Special Characters in MySQL Table Name -

i created table follows:

create table if not exists 'e!' ( `aa` int(11) unsigned not null auto_increment, `showname` text not null default '', `startdatetime` datetime not null default '', `enddatetime` datetime not null default '', primary key  (`aa`) ) engine=myisam  default charset=utf8 

then tried insert query:

insert e! (showname, startdatetime, enddatetime) values('e! news ', '2012-05-03 19:00:00', '2012-05-03 20:00:00') 

and errors due ! in table name, i'm assuming ! special character in mysql. tried escape query still failed.

so, can have special characters ! or & in table name? if yes, have encode them somehow?

thanks.

quote ambiguous or "special" table names tick:

insert `e!` ... 

or better, don't use special characters in table names avoid such problems.