RE: [PHP] error when trying to delete a record

[snip] Is the above statement true when the id field is numeric (which it surely is in this case)? I get the expected results (in mySQL) when using statements like SELECT name FROM table WHERE id=1 with no single quotes round it. Putting quotes round integer values is counter-intuitive - is it necessary in some cases? [/snip] If the id field is numeric and the $id is not set the query will return a syntax error due to the query being seen as this... SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE id = ; The problems multiply when the id field is of the auto-increment type. Some RDBMS have settings that will allow conditionals, such as WHERE id=1, to be evaluated as TRUE or FALSE, which accounts for my previous statement. id, in this case, may be a bad example because most developers would like a more qualified conditional match before a deletion occurs. I would never let my development team use the id (or whatever it was called, especially an auto-increment field) for record retrieval or deletion. In general you would not have to use quotes around fields that are INTs, FLOATs, etc. P.S. Paul, click reply-all when sending messages back to this list. I know it is counter-intuitive, but it is how this one works.