dropping temporary table

Question

I have 3 php scripts: in 1st one I create a temporary table (in MySQL) with name based on User ID, in 2nd I use that table and give a message to the user, in the 3rd one I use and delete temporary table and give message to the user. My problem is that if user closes browser when he/she is on the 2nd page, I’m left with a temporary table in the database that needs to be dropped. What’s the best way to solve this?

Answer 1

If you use a common DB handle for all the access you could use 'create temporary table <contents>' and it would be deleted automatically when the handle is closed. This would clean up the mess should the session get closed prematurely.

Answer 2

This is very poor practice. Create the table ONCE and insert/delete rows based on user actions. Use a timestamp on each row and have a cleanup script run periodically to remove old entries.