Re: Inserting Null Value or String Value

* Keary Suska <hierophant@pcisys.net> [01 10 02 19:37]:

>on 10/1/02 10:54 AM, dcmkx10@yahoo.com purportedly said:
>
>I am trying to insert a date into a date field, but also sometimes I need to
>insert a null value.  Inserting the null value seems to require not using
>quotes around null, but if I try to enter a date without quotes around it,
>it thinks it is a number.
>
>Here is the error I get: Warning: PostgreSQL query failed: ERROR: column
>"spec_start_date" is of type 'date' but expression is of type 'integer' You
>will need to rewrite or cast the expression
>
>If I surround the date with single quotes it should be fine, but I can't do
>that when I want to insert a null value.  I know that I can do an "IF <use
>quotes> ELSE <don't use quotes>" in the SQL string, by I am entering many
>values and this would really get messy. I was hoping that there was a better
>solution. Thanks for any help.
>
>If there is a way, I haven't found it yet. But it doesn't have to be
>messy--simply create a function that does the if-else for you, and your code
>will stay clean.

Maybe you should do the following. At the point where the switch
"date" or "NULL" in the php-file is:

if(empty($form_date)){
  $date_var = NULL;
}else $date_var = "'$date'";

$query = "INSERT INTO table (table_row1, date)
          VALUES ('$value1', $date_var);";

You still have the if/else, but I think there must be somewhere the
switch NULL <=> date

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Eckhard Höffner
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