How to send "null" or empty value to database through PHP? - php

Question

I have a jqgrid that with date columns that post in format 0/0/0000 or if empty send "null" to my php file to then insert to MYsql column. It posts "null" but does not send "null" command to database column. What I'm I missing? Firephp says that at this point my date column inputs are all '"1969-12-31"'. What can I do to post "null" correctly to these columns?
****UPDATE: Here is the var dumb for $_REQUEST:****
array(12) {
["name"]=>string(24) "FABTECH B2B Presentation"
["id_continent"]=>string(6) " Ramon"
["lastvisit"]=>string(10) "12/31/2104"
["cdate"]=>string(9) "8/22/2014"
["ddate"]=>string(9) "9/14/2014"
["notes"]=>string(69) "B2B machines are C1 AJ and HG ATC. Waiting for part data from Yoshi."
["hello"]=>string(2) "No"
["mydate"]=>string(4) "null"
["oper"]=>string(4) "edit"
["id"]=>string(3) "184"
["PHPSESSID"]=>string(32) "93de884f9e02d507ff3662f63149f9f3"
["SQLiteManager_currentLangue"]=>string(2) "10"
}
My code:
$crudColumns = array(
'id' =>'id'
,'name'=>'name'
,'id_continent'=>'id_continent'
,'lastvisit'=>'lastvisit'
,'cdate'=>'cdate'
,'ddate'=>'ddate'
,'notes'=>'notes'
,'hello'=>'hello'
,'mydate'=>'mydate'
);
function fnCleanInputVar($string){
//$string = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
return $string;
}
/*----====|| GET and CLEAN THE POST VARIABLES ||====----*/
foreach ($postConfig as $key => $value){
if(isset($_REQUEST[$value])){
$postConfig[$key] = fnCleanInputVar($_REQUEST[$value]);
}
}
foreach ($crudColumns as $key => $value){
if(isset($_REQUEST[$key])){
if ($key == 'lastvisit' || $key == 'cdate' || $key == 'ddate' || $key == 'mydate' ) {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = '"'.date('Y-m-d', strtotime($_REQUEST[$key])).'"';
} else {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = '"'.fnCleanInputVar($_REQUEST[$key]).'"';
}
}
}
FB::info($crudColumnValues, "Dates");
/*----====|| INPUT VARIABLES ARE CLEAN AND CAN BE USED IN QUERIES||====----*/
Mysql query
case $crudConfig['update']:
/* ----====|| ACTION = UPDATE ||====----*/
if($DEBUGMODE == 1){$firephp->info('UPDATE','action');}
$sql = 'update '.$crudTableName.' set ';
/* create all of the update statements */
foreach($crudColumns as $key => $value){ $updateArray[$key] = $value.'='.$crudColumnValues[$key]; };
$sql .= implode(',',$updateArray);
/* add any additonal update statements here */
$sql .= ' where id = '.$crudColumnValues['id'];
if($DEBUGMODE == 1){$firephp->info($sql,'query');}
mysql_query( $sql )
or die($firephp->error('Couldn t execute query.'.mysql_error()));
break;

Answer 1

Check whether the parameter from the grid is null, and put NULL into the database instead of the date.
foreach ($crudColumns as $key => $value){
if(isset($_REQUEST[$key])){
if ($key == 'lastvisit' || $key == 'cdate' || $key == 'ddate' || $key == 'mydate' ) {
if ($_REQUEST[$key] == 'null') {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = 'NULL';
} else {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = '"'.date('Y-m-d', strtotime($_REQUEST[$key])).'"';
}
} else {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = '"'.fnCleanInputVar($_REQUEST[$key]).'"';
}
}
}

Answer 2

Seems that you may be confusing empty with null. An empty string will be interpreted as "" whereas null will be interpreted as "null", big difference. Try this.
EDIT:
After looking at the PHP manual it seems that if you try to add a null value to an array key it is changed to "".
First of all, create your array like this
['mydate'] => ''
Change your date formatting.
foreach ($crudColumns as $key => $value){
if(isset($_REQUEST[$key])){
if ($key == 'lastvisit' || $key == 'cdate' || $key == 'ddate' || $key == 'mydate' ) {
if (strtotime($value)) {
$value = '"'.date('Y-m-d', $value).'"';
} else {
$value = "";
}
} else {
$crudColumnValues[$key] = fnCleanInputVar($_REQUEST[$key]);
}
Also, part of the issue is that you are specifying the keys but you need to be changing the value.