Syntax issue UPDATE works but not INSERT - php

Question

I have a dropdown lists which the default value is selected. If there is a value there the if statements allow an update to the data. If no value then instead a whole row will be inserted. It works if I hard code the third value as 1. However when I set this to $category_of_taxom1 the insert doesn't work. The Update works fine, so If I manually create the record within the DB, I can update it via the update SQL shown below. But if I try INSERT no luck? (I Have hard coded the first 3 items to be inserted, the third should be the variable mentioned above.
I have this select list
<select name="categorySelect1fromDB" >
<option value ="">EMPTY</option>';
<option value="1" <?php echo ($category_of_taxom1 == 1)?"selected":""; ?>>A</option>
<option value="2" <?php echo ($category_of_taxom1 == 2)?"selected":""; ?>>B</option>
<option value="3" <?php echo ($category_of_taxom1 == 3)?"selected":""; ?>>C</option>
<option value="4" <?php echo ($category_of_taxom1 == 4)?"selected":""; ?>>D</option>
</select>
And this set of statements.
if(isset($_POST['save']))
{
$category_of_taxom1 = $_POST['categorySelect1fromDB'];
$number_of_taxom1 = $_POST['number_of_taxom1'];
if (!empty($category_of_taxom1)){ //This is the value fromDB if not empy then do below else do last
pg_query("UPDATE record_tbl SET category_of_taxom ='$category_of_taxom1', number_of_taxom ='$number_of_taxom1' WHERE sheet_id = '$sheet_id' AND line = 1");
echo "Updated!";
} else
{
pg_query("INSERT INTO record_tbl (line, taxom_id, category_of_taxom, number_of_taxom, sheet_id) VALUES (1,1,'$category_of_taxom1','$number_of_taxom1','$sheet_id')");
echo "New Record ?Saved!";
}
}
This is an example of a working pgsql line I use else where in my site:
$sql8 = "INSERT INTO record_tbl (line, taxom_id, category_of_taxom, number_of_taxom, sheet_id) VALUES (8,8,'$_POST[gammarus_numbers]','$_POST[countgammarus]','$sheetid')";
$result = pg_query($sql8);

Answer 1

The datatype for the field 'category_of_taxom' is most likely set to varchar, meaning it should have quotes around the value when using INSERT. So you can either:
1) Change the datatype of category_of_taxom to integer in your database
2) Include quotes around the value in your INSERT statement:
('1','1','1','$number_of_taxom1',$sheet_id)
Related documentation:
mysql - quote numbers or not?

Answer 2

I should probably delete this question: The quotes were correct, I needed them on each variable. However because the code was so long, i couldnt post it all on here. I had accidentally called that variable twice. So at one point of time it does have something in, but within the same code it may also not. So i ended up having to rename my variable. Not really a good answer, but going to delete it anyway. As this will be too narrow for anyone else.