How to store NULL values in datetime fields in MySQL?

Question

I have a \"bill_date\" field that I want to be blank (NULL) until it\'s been billed, at which point the date will be entered.

I see that MySQL does not like NULL val

Answer 1

For what it is worth: I was experiencing a similar issue trying to update a MySQL table via Perl. The update would fail when an empty string value (translated from a null value from a read from another platform) was passed to the date column ('dtcol' in the code sample below). I was finally successful getting the data updated by using an IF statement embedded in my update statement:

    ...
    my $stmnt='update tbl set colA=?,dtcol=if(?="",null,?) where colC=?';
    my $status=$dbh->do($stmt,undef,$iref[1],$iref[2],$iref[2],$ref[0]);
    ...