php code consolidation - php

I was troubleshooting some code and ended up with this:
$url=$this->_protected_arr['f3b'];
$title=$this->_protected_arr['f3a'];
$email=$_SESSION['email'];
database::query("INSERT INTO bo VALUES ('$title','$url','','$email')");
I think that it should be abel to get rid of $url, $title, and $email and just insert their values directly into the query. How do I write this in a single statement?

Like this:
database::query("INSERT INTO bo VALUES ('{$this->_protected_arr[f3b]}', '{$this->_protected_arr[f3a]}', '', '$_SESSION[email]')");
Be sure that everything is properly escaped for the SQL query.

database::query("INSERT INTO bo VALUES ('"
. $this->_protected_arr[f3b] . "', '"
. $this->_protected_arr[f3a] . "', '', '"
. $_SESSION[email]."')");

Related

Trouble specifying my tablename inside query because of dot notation

I'm having trouble specifying my tablename inside the following query.
$sql = "INSERT INTO db269193_crud.posts (post_title,description)
VALUES ('" . $title . "','" . $description . "')";
The tablename is: db269193_crud.posts. I can't specify the table name as 'posts' because of my hostingprovider. They only allow me to specify it in conjunction with my databasename (which is db269193).
So the table name becomes: db269193(dot)posts. This dot however keeps lighting up in my editor as an incorrect syntax.
I need someone's help to tell me if I specified the table name correctly or if I have to use a variable to hide the dot notation like:
$tablename = 'db269193.crud';
$sql = "INSERT INTO $tablename (post_title,description)
VALUES ('" . $title . "','" . $description . "')";
You can put the entire name in backticks to escape it:
INSERT INTO `db269193_crud.posts` (post_title, description)
VALUES ('" . $title . "', '" . $description . "')
As for the rest of your statement, I would encourage you to use parameters instead of munging the query string. By putting random strings in the query, you are just inviting syntax errors and SQL injection attacks.
I can't specify the table name as 'posts' because of my hostingprovider. They only allow me to specify it in conjunction with my databasename (which is db269193).
I pretty much doubt that as it would require DB changes which simply make no sense. I assume that it's your fault as you did not select DB to use in the first place. Check how you connect and ensure you provide DB name as well or at least you mysqli_select_db() or equivalent.
$tablename = 'db269193.crud';
You can use backticks when name of table or column conflicts or is reserved word:
$tablename = '`db269193.crud`';
or
$tablename = '`db269193`.`crud`';
$sql = "INSERT INTO $tablename (post_title,description)
VALUES ('" . $title . "','" . $description . "')";
You are complicating simple strings with unnecessary concatentation. This will work and is less error prone:
$sql = "INSERT INTO $tablename (post_title,description)
VALUES ('{$title}','{$description}')";
however you are still seem to be vulnerable to sql injection here. I'd recommend switching to PDO.

PHP inserting blanks into MySQL database

I have an HTML form which submits values to the following PHP file, which inserts them into a MySQL database:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect("*","*","*");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("*", $con);
$sql="INSERT INTO scores (hometeam, awayteam, result)
VALUES
('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['hometeam']) . "',
'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['awayteam']) . "',
'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['result']) . "')";
if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))
{
die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo "1 record added";
mysql_close($con);
?>
Sometimes an input field in the HTML form will be left empty and in this case I do not want anything inserted into the database. I want the value to remain NULL. At the moment when I fill in my form like this:
Home team: Blue team
Away team: [empty]
Result: Won
The following is inserted into my database:
Home team: Blue team
Away team: ' '
Result: Won
What I want to be inserted/not inserted is:
Home team: Blue team
Away team: NULL
Result: Won
I've hunted hours for a solution. Can anyone help? Thank you.
You can use the NULLIF function from mysql database. What it does is, it takes 2 parameters and return null if they are same. So basically you can change your code to be like following:
$sql="INSERT INTO scores (hometeam, awayteam, result)
VALUES
(NULLIF('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['hometeam']) . "', ''),
NULLIF('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['awayteam']) . "', ''),
NULLIF('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['result']) . "', ''))";
It will basically check if the entered value is ''(empty string), and if that's the case, it would instead save NULL in the database. You can even trim leading or trailing spaces from your variables before passing onto NULLIF, so if someone only enters spaces in your input boxes, it still saved NULL.
Also, as Michael said, it would be safer and better if you move on to PDO or mysqli extension. Hope my answer helps.
In your code, replace:
$sql="INSERT INTO scores (hometeam, awayteam, result)
VALUES
('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['hometeam']) . "',
'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['awayteam']) . "',
'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['result']) . "')";
With:
if($_POST['awayteam'] == '')
$awayteam = 'NULL';
else
$awaytem = "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['awayteam']) "'";
$sql="INSERT INTO scores (hometeam, awayteam, result)
VALUES
('" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['hometeam']) . "',
" . $awayteam . ",
'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['result']) . "')";
Don't quote them inside your query. Instead, build variables first, and append quotes to the escaped string values outside the query, giving you the ability to insert NULL keywords if your strings are empty:
// If any is not set or empty in the POST, assign the string "NULL" unquoted to a variable
// which will be passed to MySQL as the unquoted NULL keyword.
// Otherwise escape the value from $_POST and surround the escaped value in single quotes
$ateam = !empty($_POST['awayteam']) ? "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['awayteam']) . "'" : "NULL";
$hteam = !empty($_POST['hometeam']) ? "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['hometeam']) . "'" : "NULL";
$result = !empty($_POST['result']) ? "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['result']) . "'" : "NULL";
// Then pass the three variables (already quoted if necessary) directly to the query.
$sql="INSERT INTO scores (hometeam, awayteam, result) VALUES ($hteam, $ateam, $result);
In the long run, it is recommended to begin using a MySQL API which supports prepared statements, like PDO or MySQLi. They offer better security, can handle input NULLs more elegantly, and the old mysql_*() functions are soon to be deprecated.
Or if you have access to db alter the columns( that are optional) and set them as NULL by default.
i.e. if nothing is inserted in that column NULL will be displayed by default.
Why not replace ' ' and other invalid forms of data with 'null'?
OR
Check if $_POST['data'] is equal to ' ' or '' and if true, set them to 'null'.
Also,
Instead of mysql_real_escape_string, use the PHP function 'addslashes'.

Error while inserting into db in php

I am trying to inserts some values to the database in my php program but I am getting the error
Parse error: parse error, expecting `T_STRING' or `T_VARIABLE' or `T_NUM_STRING' in C:\wamp\www\php\books.php on line 9
mysql_query..
mysql_query("insert into books values('$_GET["title"]','$_GET["author"]','$_GET["edition"]','$_GET["publish"]','$_GET["isbn"]',)") or die(mysql_error());
get your values in variables like
$title = $_GET["title"];
$author = $_GET["author"];
then use query like this
mysql_query("insert into books values('$title','$author','$edition','$publish','$isbn',)") or die(mysql_error());
you are using nested double quotes
mysql_query("insert into books values('{$_GET["title"]}','{$_GET["author"]}','{$_GET["edition"]}','{$_GET["publish"]}','{$_GET["isbn"]}',)") or die(mysql_error());
or
mysql_query("insert into books values('$_GET[title]','$_GET[author]','$_GET[edition]','$_GET[publish]','$_GET[isbn]',)") or die(mysql_error());
The good query is :
mysql_query("insert into books values('" . $_GET["title"] . "','" . $_GET["author"] . "','" . $_GET["edition"] . "','" . $_GET["publish"] . "','" . $_GET["isbn"] . "')") or die(mysql_error());
There are non escaped quotes but also a comma which has nothing to do here, at the end of the query.
Maybe you should learn PHP and its syntax first.

Escaping a string being inserted into Mysql

I have tried all combinations of single quotes, double quotes etc but the following code keeps erroring with sql syntax error. The en and cy are paragraphs of text. I think I must be missing something obvious but I cant see it. Any suggestions?
$insert_dana = mysql_query("UPDATE Contributor (Summary_en,Summary_cy) VALUES ('" . mysql_real_escape_string($insert[en][0]) . "','" . mysql_real_escape_string($insert[cy][0]) . "') WHERE id='$insert[id]'");
You mixed insert and update statement syntax. Use this one
$insert_dana = mysql_query("UPDATE Contributor set Summary_en = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($insert[en][0]) . "', Summary_cy = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($insert[cy][0]) . "' WHERE id='$insert[id]'");
you're confusing the UPDATE- and the INSERT-syntax. for UPDATE, it's like:
UPDATE
table
SET
field = 'value'
WHERE
...
while an INSERT looks like:
INSERT INTO
table
(field)
VALUES
('value')
you can't write an UPDATE with (field) VALUES ('value')-syntax.

Odd Mysql issue on insert

Hy all,
Not sure what's going on here, but if I run this:
$query = 'INSERT INTO users
(`id`, `first_name`, `second_name`, `register_date`, `lastlogin_date`)
VALUES
("'. $user_id . '", "' . $first_name .'", "'. $second_name . '", "' . $date . '", "' . $date . ");';
$result = mysql_query($query);
I get no return, but if I change it to this it's fine:
$query = 'INSERT INTO users (`id`, `first_name`, `second_name`, `register_date`, `lastlogin_date`)
VALUES ("21021212", "Joe", "Bloggs", "20090202", "20090202");';
$result = mysql_query($query);
User id = bigint(20)
first name = varchar(30)
second name = varchar(30)
date = int(8)
At first I thought it was a issue with the vars but they are exactly the same and still don't work.
Any help appreciated.
Get into the habit of escaping all database inputs with mysql_real_escape_string- really, you should use some kind of wrapper like PDO or ADODb to help you do this, but here's how you might do it without:
$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO users ".
"(id, first_name, second_name, register_date, lastlogin_date)".
"VALUES('%s','%s','%s','%s','%s')",
mysql_real_escape_string($user_id),
mysql_real_escape_string($first_name),
mysql_real_escape_string($second_name),
mysql_real_escape_string($date),
mysql_real_escape_string($date));
$result = mysql_query($query);
and also check for errors with mysql_error
if (!$result)
{
echo "Error in $query: ".mysql_error();
}
What's the result from "mysql_error()"? Always check this, especially if something doesn't seem to be working.
Also, echo out $query to see what it really looks like. That could be telling.
Maybe the value of $date was "1111'); DELETE FROM users;"?
Seriously though? The problem is that isn't how you interact with your database. You shouldn't be passing in your data with your query. You need to specify the query, the parameters for the query, and pass in the actual parameter values when you execute the query. Anything else is inefficient, insecure and prone to bugs like the one you have.
By using PDO or something that supports parametrized queries, you'll find these kinds of issues go away because you are calling the database property. It is also much more secure and can speed up the database.
$sth = $dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO users (`id`, `first_name`, `second_name`, `register_date`, `lastlogin_date`) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?)")
$sth->execute(array($user_id ,$first_name , $second_name , $date, $date ));
In addition to echoing the query and checking mysql_error() as #GoatRider suggests:
Are you escaping your data properly? See mysql_real_escape_string()
You shouldn't end your queries with a semicolon when using mysql_query()
in $query = 'INSERT INTO users (id, first_name, second_name, register_date, lastlogin_date) VALUES ("' . $user_id . '", "' . $first_name . '", "' . $second_name . '", "' . $date . '", "' . $date . '");
are u giving the correct date format?? it might be the issue. otherwise the syntax is all fine.

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