PHP Ternary Operator with Dates to MS SQL Server - php

Question

I'm doing a basic sql string builder, and I'm trying to use ternary operators to conditionally feed a null value, or the value of the datetime into the statement.
Basic syntax of the update statement if all values are present.
UPDATE tblRecvLog
SET ScheduledTime = 'datetime',
ScaleInTime = 'datetime',
SampleToLabTime = 'datetime',
ScaleWeight = 'weight',
SealTop = 'sealnumber',
SealBottom = 'sealnumber'
WHERE pkRecvLogID = 'uniqueid';
I'm receiving these values from an ajax post, and they're valid values in my $_POST data, all of the encoding and decoding being done appropriately. When a datetime is not specified on the form and the user submits an update to the table record, I want to write a null value to the database. I'm trying to properly use ternary operator in my sql string builder to make this work.
$sql = "UPDATE tblRecvLog SET "
. ($ScheduledTime == '') ? "ScheduledTime = NULL," : "ScheduledTime = '{$ScheduledTime}',"
. ($ScaleInTime == '') ? "ScaleInTime = NULL," : "ScaleInTime = '{$ScaleInTime}',"
. ($SampleToLabTime == '') ? "SampleToLabTime = NULL," : "SampleToLabTime = '{$SampleToLabTime}',"
. "ScaleWeight = '{$ScaleWeight}',
SealTop = '{$SealTop}',
SealBottom = '{$SealBottom}'
WHERE pkRecvLogID = '{$pkRecvLogID}'";
The part I'm not wrapping my head around:
Dates need to be wrapped in '' for SQL server.
My use of ' and " is making it confusing.

Answer 1

I like to use vsprintf for this sort of thing, I think it makes things nicer to read. You can read more about the format specifiers. In this example I am just using %s to represent strings.
<?php
$query = "
UPDATE
tblRecvLog
SET
ScheduledTime = %s,
ScaleInTime = %s,
SampleToLabTime = %s,
ScaleWeight = '%s',
SealTop = '%s',
SealBottom = '%s'
WHERE
pkRecvLogID = '%s';";
$values = [
($ScheduledTime == '') ? NULL : "'" . $ScheduledTime . "'",
($ScaleInTime == '') ? NULL : "'" . $ScaleInTime . "'",
($SampleToLabTime = '') ? NULL : "'" . $SampleToLabTime . "'",
$ScaleWeight,
$SealTop,
$SealBottom,
$pkRecvLogID,
];
$sql = vsprintf($query, $values);

Answer 2

Another variant:
$vars = array(
"ScheduledTime" => $ScheduledTime,
"ScaleInTime" => $ScaleInTime,
"SampleToLabTime" => $SampleToLabTime,
"ScaleWeight" => $ScaleWeight
"SealTop" => $SealTop,
"SealBottom" => $SealBottom
);
$set = array();
foreach($vars as $k => $v)
{
if ($v == '' || is_null($v))
{
$set[] = sprintf("`%s` = NULL", $k);
} else {
$set[] = sprintf("`%s` = '%s'", $k, $v);
}
}
$set = implode(', ', $set);
if ($set != "")
{
$sql = sprintf("UPDATE `tblRecvLog` SET %s WHERE `pkRecvLogID` = '%s'", $set, $pkRecvLogID);
...
}