How does a "Schema changed after the target table was created" error occur?

Question

I hit this error while my web application was trying to execute a SELECT INTO on a MSSQL 2005 database. I really have two questions:

1. What does this error mean and how does this happen?
2. Is there a way to prevent these errors by coding in a different way?

Answer 1

Besides the obvious, that somebody changed the table while the code was executing, it could be a naming conflict with temp tables created in the SQL. It could be that there are two temp tables with different schemas, but they have the same name.