PHP MariaDB Insert NULL Value Not Working

Edit

The original poster said

My code is below (please ignore any security vulnerabilities this is simplified code)

I interpret that as "I know about SQL injection and I am taking measures to prevent it in my code. I've simplified my post to make it easier to get an answer."

My response below is following their format. That's why I did not use PDO, mysqli, prepared statements/escape measures in my post. If I were personally writing code to insert data into a database, I would make sure my data is sanitized and I would use an ORM like Doctrine (which is a wrapper for PDO) to interact directly with the database.

My Answer

Referencing the code in the original post:

$id = $_POST['id '];
$name = $_POST['name'] ? $_POST['name'] : NULL ;
$sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id, name) VALUES ('".$id."', '".$name."')
// query runs and inserts successfully

Your query is behaving the way you've written your code. If you echo/print a PHP variable to standard output after it has been set to NULL you won't see a value at all. Null is the absence of value. Since you've wrapped the absence of value (no value, null) in single quotes, you're telling MySQL that you want to insert an empty string into the name column.

I would rewrite the code as follows:

$id = $_POST['id '];
$name = $_POST['name'] ? "'$_POST[name]'" : 'NULL';
$sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id, name) VALUES ('$id', $name)";

Notice how I put NULL in a string for the name variable. When I include the name variable in the query I don't wrap it with quotes. This is the proper way to explicitly add a null value to a column in MySQL.

PHP's double quotes allows variable interpolation. This means you don't have to break your strings down into individual parts and concatenate string values together. This makes the code cleaner and easier to read.

First, you're obviously not using prepared statements. I strongly advice you to use prepared statements in the name of security and stability.

Then, on to the issue at hand. The database doesn't know what a PHP null is and will only see an empty string to be inserted in your code.

"" . null . "" === ""

Keeping your (very dangerous and vulnerable) example code, and modifing the place where you add the "quotes" around the to be inserted string. If the name is null just insert NULL without quotes around it. the databse server will interpret that as having to inserta null value

$name = $_POST['name'] ? "'".$_POST['name']."'" : 'NULL';
$sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id, name) VALUES ('".$id."', ".$name.")";

Now really, investigate how to do prepared queries to prevent SQL injections or at least use mysqli_real_escape_string or something equivalent.

this is the more secure version, using PDO.

$sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id,name) VALUES (:id,:name)";
$stmt= $dpo->prepare($sql);
$stmnt->bindParam(':id', $id, PDO::PARAM_INT);

if(!$POST['name']) {
    $stmnt->bindParam(':name', null, PDO::PARAM_NULL);
}
else {
   $stmnt->bindParam(':name', $POST['name'], PDO::PARAM_STR);
}
$stmt->execute();

I would instead use PDO prepared statements. That should set the value to NULL instead of an empty string. Because you are wrapping '".$name"' it is making the query '') - i.e an empty string.

I'd do like this:

$id = $_POST['id '];
if(isset($_POST['name'])){
    $sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id, name) VALUES ('".$id."', '".$name."')
}else{
    $sql = "INSERT INTO staff (id) VALUES ('".$id."')
}

discriminating the query if I receive the name from the form or not. You should use prepared statements to pass variables (user inputs) to a mysql query. Otherwise you are widely open to SQL injections.