moggs:

Perhaps you could use placeholders like so:

insert into foo_table (key, val1,         val2)
values                (?,   isnull(?,''), isnull(?,''))
[download]

or perhaps adapt that to use the $dbh->quote() calls you're currently using.

Update: I don't use MySQL, so I don't know the functional equivalent, so I just guessed.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.