No Errors But Blank :/

chaseab

When run the code below there is no errors( I get a 🙂 ) But In the db the like is blank. Here is the code:

<?php
require_once("connect.php");
if($_POST['go']){
$like = $_POST['like'];
$date = date("Y-m-d");

$query = mysql_query("
INSERT INTO `neochase_likes`.`likelist` (
`id` ,
`like` ,
`submitter` ,
`date` 
)
VALUES (
NULL , '$like', 'Chase', '$date'
);
");

if($query){
echo":)";
}else
	echo ":(";
}


?>
<form name="like" method="POST">
<textarea name="like"></textarea>
<input type="submit" name="go" value="Like it!" />
</form>

bradgrafelman

What happens if you echo $like just before you execute the query - does it show the appropriate value? Also, echo out $query - does it look right? Paste it here for us to see as well.

Also, here are some other considerations/suggestions:

You should never reference external data without ensuring that it exists. In other words, code like:
```
if($_POST['go']){ 
```
will generate an E_NOTICE level error message if $_POST['go'] is undefined. Instead, you should use something like [man]isset/man or [man]empty/man to test whether or not that external variable exists/has a value.
Similarly, instead of writing code like:
```
$like = $_POST['like'];
```
I prefer to use the ternary syntax and write code like:
```
$like = (isset($_POST['like']) ? $_POST['like'] : NULL);
```
This has the benefit of a) not generating E_NOTICE level errors if the field wasn't submitted, and b) allowing me to set a default value if the field wasn't sent (or if it was blank or doesn't meet whatever criteria I desire).
Rather than generating a date in PHP, you could simply use the CURDATE() function in MySQL. There's also the TIMESTAMP column type, where you can set this column to be automatically populated with the current timestamp whenever a row is inserted (you simply omit the column from the query).
Note that the common practice for AUTO_INCREMENT columns (e.g. what I assume this id field is) is to simply omit them from the INSERT query altogether. It's not that it really matters whether you insert NULL to this column or not, but I like to leave the column out because a) the MySQL docs recommend it, and b) it makes my queries slightly shorter. :p
Finally.. most importantly (e.g. you shouldn't consider this a mere suggestion, rather a severe warning 😉): user-supplied data should never be placed directly into a SQL query else your code will be vulnerable to SQL injection attacks and/or just plain SQL errors. Instead, it must first be sanitized with a function such as [man]mysql_real_escape_string/man (for string data).