MySQL DELETE query works except not in PHP - php

Question

I have a MySQL query to delete 'near' duplicate rows from a table, and while using test data outside of my project, the query appears to work as intended. When I use the same query with PHP in the project, I get an SQL error. I've been trying all sorts of different combinations of quotes and backticks and I can't seem to get this working.
Any idea what is going on here?
Problem being solved:
This table sometimes will have rows that are nearly identical, with the only exception being the as_of_date column and the total. Only the the most recent date is important, and any older data is no longer needed in this table once newer data comes in.
Table structure with example data:
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
| id | account | year | as_of_date | total |
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
| 1 | 123 | 2017 | 2017-02-02 | 250 |
| 2 | 123 | 2017 | 2017-11-24 | 790 |
| 3 | 123 | 2018 | 2018-01-30 | 55 |
| 4 | 456 | 2016 | 2016-04-04 | 500 |
| 5 | 456 | 2016 | 2016-10-10 | 300 |
| 6 | 456 | 2017 | 2017-03-12 | 44 |
| 7 | 789 | 2015 | 2015-12-23 | 2000 |
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
Expected Outcome:
The desired result is to delete all 'near-duplicate' rows in the table except for the most recent one (as_of_date). So there should only be at most 1 row for any given account and year. The table should look like this after the query is executed:
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
| id | account | year | as_of_date | total |
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
| 2 | 123 | 2017 | 2017-11-24 | 790 |
| 3 | 123 | 2018 | 2018-01-30 | 55 |
| 5 | 456 | 2016 | 2016-10-10 | 300 |
| 6 | 456 | 2017 | 2017-03-12 | 44 |
| 7 | 789 | 2015 | 2015-12-23 | 2000 |
+----+---------+------+-------------+-------+
The query:
$query = "DELETE FROM `my_table` AS t
WHERE t.as_of_date NOT IN (
SELECT MAX(as_of_date)
FROM (SELECT * FROM `my_table`) AS t2
WHERE t2.account = t.account AND t2.year = t.year
GROUP BY account, `year`
)";
Here is the SQL error:
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 'AS t
WHERE t.as_of_date NOT IN (
S' at line 1

Answer 1

Don't use table aliases in DELETE FROM. That is, try DELETE FROM my_table WHERE..., omitting AS t.
By the way, the only times you really need backticks are when you have table names that are the same as reserved words or have spaces in them.
SELECT * FROM `SELECT`
or
SELECT * FROM `My Favorite Table`
Wise programmers avoid those situations.