Dee, If all you're trying to code is that a value of NULL equates to FALSE and a date value (whatever date value) equates to true, you can use something like this: If ($MyVariable) { //... true path blah... } else { //... false path blah... } You can use this because NULL equates to false. If you prefer something more concise, try the following: $MyVariable ? //True : //False I'm not a PHP guy so take this with a grain of salt. If I'm full of it, don't hesitate to correct me. A- -----Original Message----- From: OKi98 [mailto:oki98@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 4:33 PM To: Dee Ayy Cc: php-db@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: MySQL Conditional Trigger -------- Original Message -------- Subject: MySQL Conditional Trigger From: Dee Ayy <dee.ayy@xxxxxxxxx> To: php-db@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: 31.10.2008 17:09 > I don't think my trigger likes a comparison with a variable which is > NULL. The docs seem to have a few interesting variations on playing > with NULL and I was hoping someone would just throw me a fish so I > don't have to try every permutation (possibly using CASE, IFNULL, > etc.). > > If my ShipDate (which is a date datatype which can be NULL) changes to > a non-null value, I want my IF statement to evaluate to TRUE. > IF NULL changes to aDate : TRUE > IF aDate changes to aDifferentDate : TRUE > IF anyDate changes to NULL : FALSE > > In my trigger I have: > ... > IF OLD.ShipDate != NEW.ShipDate AND NEW.ShipDate IS NOT NULL THEN > ... > > Which only works when ShipDate was not NULL to begin with. > I suppose it evaluates the following to FALSE > IF NULL != '2008-10-31' AND '2008-10-31' IS NOT NULL THEN > (not liking the "NULL != '2008-10-31'" part) > > Please give me the correct syntax. > TIA > > anything compared to NULL is always false NULL = NULL (NULL included) => false NULL != anything (NULL included) => false that's why IS NULL exists I would go this way: IF NVL(OLD.ShipDate, -1) != NVL(NEW.ShipDate, -1) THEN -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php