Question

Hi im learning php and mySQL and im having issues with inserting or updating dates into MySQl.

The error i get back is usually something like:
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ’08:17:00, 2012-07-12 08:17:00, 2012-07-12 08:17:00, 2012-07-12 08:17:00

I have 4 date entries hence the reason for 4 dates above. So the date seems to be going in but there is an issue with the time.
In my datebase im using datetime.

Here is my code, i filtered out the uneccessary stuff as everything else inserts fine if i comment out the date inserts.

$end_date = ($_POST['end_date']);
$end_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime($end_date));

Insert Query is simply:

mysql_query("INSERT INTO deals (end_date) 
VALUES ('$end_date')") 

or die(mysql_error());  

Now ive literally spent hours researching this and tried a bunch of combinations without luck, one solution i did apply to an update was this which worked fine but im not sure how to apply it to an insert since i dont need the 3 days added in this scenario and im thinking better to get this date issue sorted out now while im learning.

$sql = "UPDATE deals SET deal_end_date = DATE_ADD(now(), INTERVAL $my_expiry DAY)";

Now my style of learning was to watch a 40 hour tutorial on the basics and then make a website and for each part of the website i come across a different problem, i research how to code it and learn a bit at a time. I find this so much more motivating than reading a manual.

Would appreciate any help. Because im learning maybe dumb down the code to make it more readable, i can look into stripping down the code later but i want to try and understand it better and if the solution is in more readable format that will help.

Answer 1

The way you compose the query elads to an invaid syntax. Try to dump the composed string instead for debugging purposes, you will find that the quotes are wrong.

WRONG:

INSERT INTO deals (end_date) VALUES ('2012-07-12 08:17:00, 2012-07-12 08:17:00, 2012-07-12 08:17:00');

Correct would be something like:

INSERT INTO deals (end_date) VALUES ('2012-07-12 08:17:00', '2012-07-12 08:17:00', '2012-07-12 08:17:00');