INSERT problem with MySQL/PHP

PHP: 4.0.4pl1 MySQL: 3.23.36-1 I have the following code fragment, which uses the same connection parameters elsewhere to *successfully* to retrieve data from a database, so this doesn't appear to be a permissions problem with MySQL. However, nothing happens with inserts; no rows are added at all. All I get is a message form mysql_error() saying "Query was empty." Can anyone tell me what might be wrong? $user_idx = 1; $objective = 1; $question = 'Foo'; $question_type = 'singular'; $connection_id = mysql_connect ('192.168.1.1', 'php', 'password') or die ("No connection.\n"); $sql = "INSERT INTO question VALUES (NULL, $user_idx, $objective, '$question', '$question_type', NULL, NULL)"; $result = mysql_db_query('item_db', $sql_query, $connection_id); echo "<pre>"; echo "\nDebugging output:\n"; echo "\tSQL: $sql\n"; echo "\tError: ", mysql_error(), "\n"; echo "\tLast insert ID: ", mysql_insert_id(), "\n"; echo "\tResult: $result\n"; echo "</pre>\n"; -- Todd A. Jacobs CodeGnome Consulting, LTD