[Resolved] Assigning NULL to variables!

[jlpierce]

Hello all,

is it possible to assign NULL to a variable, say a table field allows for a null value and during form validation a specific field is left blank, can I make that variable = null so that during insertion in the table the field will be null.

if ( empty( $somevar ) )
{
$somevar = null
}

TIA

John

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[egervari]

Yes, you can use the null keyword in php. You can also make null objects as well (if a language didn't support null but had OO). I choose to do null objects over the keyword null since Often times you get code that goes:

if( $object == null ) someBehaviour();
else $object->someOtherBehaviour();

if you create a NullObject that extends from $object's class, you can just do this

$object->behaviour();

and that will probably reduce a lot of code on your behalf.

So if you want to set null values, you should just do this:

if ( empty( $somevar ) )
{
$object= new NullObject();
}

you can have an isNull property as well to test if the object is null if can't deal with it polymorphically. Hope that helps.

[jlpierce]

Thanks craig,

I am not, however, very good at the OO stuff I just have not been involved with it that much.

To save space, I will not show all code. I am using a while loop with the list() each() functions to loop through the HTTP_POST_VARS and validate data, if second telephone nos., second address lines, and middle names. I have used the statement $value = NULL;
and after I insert the info in the tables the value is not set to null and doing a select based on is null will not return the result, it returns an empty set.

Any clue would be appreciated.

John