Question

I’m using $this->db->update(); to create an update query that adds the value stored in a variable, $amount, to the value in a column, count. My function call currently looks like this:

$data = array('count' => 'count + '.$amount);

$this->db->where('id', $item_id);
$this->db->update('items', $data);

However, this generates the following broken SQL:

UPDATE `items` SET `count` = 'count + 2' WHERE `id` =  '2'

Is there a way to generate the SET clause without the quotes around count + 2?

Answer 1

Thanks, Maxime Morin, for putting me on the right track. According to the CodeIgniter Documentation, you can create a “set” clause without quotes by setting the optional $escape parameter to FALSE. Thus, the solution to my problem was:

$this->db->set("count", "count + $amount", FALSE); 
$this->db->where("id", $item_id);
$this->db->update("items", $data);