Re: Simple Question: PHP, MySQL, HTML Form and NULL

Your form returns the date as an empty string "" which is an invalid date. MySQL sets all invalid dates to 0000-00-00. There is a big difference between an empty string and NULL. If you want to insert NULL into the MySQL date field you will need to insert "/0" which is the escape sequence for NULL. In the script that inserts the form data just add something like: if ($Date == "") $Date = "/0"; somewhere before the insert. Fred <sgibbs@vt.globalhealth.org> wrote in message news:BB6D932A42D6D211B4AC0090274EBB1DA0F139@GLOBAL1... > I have added a new column in an existing MYSQL table called event_date" - > type: DATE, NULL default. > > This database field will be filled if and when the field in the HTML form is > complete. When I added the new field to MySQL, it automatically assigned > NULL to all the existing records - which is what I wanted it to do. > > I tested the HTML form, and when someone enters a date in the HTML form, the > date appears correctly in the table field. Perfect. > > Now my question: When the HTML form date field is left blank and the form > is submitted, instead of putting "NULL" in the MySQL event_date field, I > found: 0000-00-00. Is this because the form is submitting an " " to the > database field? > > Is there some kind of if/then statement I should use so that when the field > is empty, "NULL" will be entered into that table field? > > Thank you, Shawna