Inserting NOW() into Database with CodeIgniter's Active Record

Question

I want to insert current time in database using mySQL function NOW() in Codeigniter\'s active record. The following query won\'t work:

$data = array(
                


        

Answer 1

This is the easy way to handle timestamp insertion

$data = array('created_on' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));

Answer 2

$this->db->query("update table_name set ts = now() where 1=1") also works for current time stamp!

Answer 3

According to the source code of codeigniter, the function set is defined as:

public function set($key, $value = '', $escape = TRUE)
{
    $key = $this->_object_to_array($key);

    if ( ! is_array($key))
    {
        $key = array($key => $value);
    }

    foreach ($key as $k => $v)
    {
        if ($escape === FALSE)
        {
            $this->ar_set[$this->_protect_identifiers($k)] = $v;
        }
        else
        {
            $this->ar_set[$this->_protect_identifiers($k, FALSE, TRUE)] = $this->escape($v);
        }
    }

    return $this;
}

Apparently, if $key is an array, codeigniter will simply ignore the second parameter $value, but the third parameter $escape will still work throughout the iteration of $key, so in this situation, the following codes work (using the chain method):

$this->db->set(array(
    'name' => $name ,
    'email' => $email,
    'time' => 'NOW()'), '', FALSE)->insert('mytable');

However, this will unescape all the data, so you can break your data into two parts:

$this->db->set(array(
    'name' => $name ,
    'email' => $email))->set(array('time' => 'NOW()'), '', FALSE)->insert('mytable');

Answer 4

    $data = array(
            'name' => $name ,
            'email' => $email,
            'time' =>date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
            );
            $this->db->insert('mytable', $data);

Answer 5

putting NOW() in quotes won't work as Active Records will put escape the NOW() into a string and tries to push it into the db as a string of "NOW()"... you will need to use

$this->db->set('time', 'NOW()', FALSE); 

to set it correctly.

you can always check your sql afterward with

$this->db->last_query();

Answer 6

I typically use triggers to handle timestamps but I think this may work.

$data = array(
    'name' => $name,
    'email' => $email
);

$this->db->set('time', 'NOW()', FALSE);
$this->db->insert('mytable', $data);