MySQL and PHP - insert NULL rather than empty string

Question

I have a MySQL statement that inserts some variables into the database. I recently added 2 fields which are optional ($intLat, $intLng). Right now, if these values are not entered I pass along an empty string as a value. How do I pass an explicit NULL value to MySQL (if empty)?

$query = "INSERT INTO data (notes, id, filesUploaded, lat, lng, intLat, intLng)
          VALUES ('$notes', '$id', TRIM('$imageUploaded'), '$lat', '$long', 
                  '$intLat', '$intLng')";
mysql_query($query);

Answer 1

To pass a NULL to MySQL, you do just that.

INSERT INTO table (field,field2) VALUES (NULL,3)

So, in your code, check if $intLat, $intLng are empty, if they are, use NULL instead of '$intLat' or '$intLng'.

$intLat = !empty($intLat) ? "'$intLat'" : "NULL";
$intLng = !empty($intLng) ? "'$intLng'" : "NULL";

$query = "INSERT INTO data (notes, id, filesUploaded, lat, lng, intLat, intLng)
          VALUES ('$notes', '$id', TRIM('$imageUploaded'), '$lat', '$long', 
                  $intLat, $intLng)";