Adding TABLE_PREFIX in a manual query

[Mr Blunt]

I don't know if it's a vbulletin bug or maybe me telling people to do something that's incorrect and I seek advise here as I don't wish to report it as a bug until someone with more knowledge tells me they think the same.

In my "whodownloaded this attachment" hack....
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=91390
.... I require adding one new field to vb's existing "user" table.

Post#13 shows C.Birch with a 1064 error when running my query.

Query
ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . " user ADD COLUMN downloads TEXT NOT NULL

vBulletin Message
An error occurred while attempting to execute your query. The following information was returned.
error number: 1064
error desc: 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 '" . TABLE_PREFIX . " user ADD COLUMN downloads TEXT NOT NULL' a

Now please note his error shows a space between the quote mark and the word "user". My query does not have a space there, and since that user IS a coder here, I suspect he did not cut n paste my query incorrectly (but possible since I didn't ask him to confirm).


1) Is this a vbulletin bug and it's adding a space when it shouldn't?
2) Is the query I ask people to run incorrect?

Why am I now thinking that the " marks should be '
Hmmm
HELP?

For now I asked my installers to manually edit the query with their prefix if they use one but I'd rather not leave it like that if possible.

Crap, I'm sorry I asked a question in here.
I didn't mean that.

Can someone move this please?
(or answer it and it will then be a "how-to", LOL)
Again, I am truely sorry.