CodeIgniter UPDATE works on first, but not successive AJAX calls - php

Question

This is the weirdest problem. My update query works consistently if I write it as a query string. Here's my model function:
public function approveListing($params)
{
//This always works.
$sql = "UPDATE `assets` set approved = ".$params['approved']." WHERE as_id = ".$params['as_id']."";
$this->db->query($sql);
// and I use this select query to detect the actual updated value change.
$this->db->select('approved');
$this->db->where('as_id', $params['as_id']);
$query = $this->db->get('assets');
foreach($query->result() as $row)
{
$params['approved'] = $row->approved;
}
return $params;
}
...and the output will look something like this:
as_id = 260
approved = 1 (or 0, if the input param is 0)
But if I use the query builder method, rather than a sql string, it works exactly once:
public function approveListing($params)
{
// This only works on the first ajax call. After that, no update occurs.
$this->db->set('approved', $params['approved']); // this will be a value of 1 or 0
$this->db->where('as_id', $params['as_id']);
$this->db->update('assets');
$params['updated'] = $this->db->affected_rows();
// and I use this select query to detect the actual updated value change.
$this->db->select('approved');
$this->db->where('as_id', $params['as_id']);
$query = $this->db->get('assets');
foreach($query->result() as $row)
{
$params['approved'] = $row->approved;
}
return $params;
}
...and the output will look something like this:
as_id = 260
approved = 1
updated = 0 <!- notice this is the affected_rows() value. :( ->
$params['approved'] is either a 1 or a 0. The field approved in table assets is a BIT(1)
The function is being called from a controller function, which itself is being called from an ajax call, which sends the changes of a set of radio button clicks (either '1' or '0').
In the case of the query builder update, I am also capturing the affected_rows. The first time I do the query, the affected_rows() = 1. Every time thereafter, the affected_rows = 0, and by checking the record in PHPMyAdmin, I can see the value just doesn't want to change.

Answer 1

Well, I really dislike answering my own questions, but since I did find an answer, and since the question (though rare) is not "too local", but is, in fact, something other coders are going to run into if they try to update a MySQL data type BIT (why we don't see a lot of questions about data type BIT is because it's one of the newest MySQL or MariaDB data types), here is what's going on.
CodeIgniter query builder wraps the value with single quotes, like so:
UPDATE `assets` set approved = '1' WHERE as_id = 260
MySQL doesn't like that. You could either just hand write your query, like this:
$sql = "UPDATE `assets` set approved = ".$params['approved']." WHERE as_id = ".$params['as_id']."";
$this->db->query($sql);
...But that's not a good solution, it's a copout. The query builder should work.
What you have to do is to declare the value as an INT, and the way you do it is like this:
$this->db->set('approved', (int) $params['approved']);
$this->db->where('as_id', $params['as_id']);
$this->db->update('assets');