INSERTing A String Containing NULL () From PHP App

Folks, this isn't exactly a 'Getting Started' question, but I couldn't find a more appropriate Application Development forum.

I'm porting an open source PHP application (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gallery) to use SQL Server as a backend. One of Gallery's unit test scripts tests the ability to insert a string containing a NULL character (). It's OK if the string is truncated during insertion, just so long as everything before the is there.

The string being inserted looks like:




$testString = "The NULL character should be escaped !";



(Note the between "escaped " and " !")

The error that the Gallery test script is getting is:




[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near 'The NULL character should be escaped '.] in EXECUTE("INSERT INTO g2_PluginParameterMap (g_pluginType, g_pluginId, g_itemId, g_parameterName, g_parameterValue) VALUES ('module','unitTestModule',1,'test19476','The NULL character should be escaped !')")



It looks like SQL Server is complaining about the syntax. I've written a much simpler test script in the hopes of reproducing the problem, but I don't know if what I'm now hitting is the same problem or a different one.

My simple script is:




<?php

$localhost = exec("hostname");
$database = "gallery2";
$uid = "g2user";
$pwd = "g2pwd";
$connectString = "Host=PROVIDER=MSDASQL;DRIVER={SQL Server};";
$connectString .= "SERVER=$localhost\sqlexpress;";
$connectString .= "DATABASE=$database;";
$connectString .= "UID=$uid;PWD=$pwd";

$sqlTableDrop = "drop table ljmtemp";
$sqlTableCreate = "create table ljmtemp (col1 nvarchar(100))";
$sqlTableQuery = "select len(col1) from ljmtemp";

// Connect to the db
$db = new COM("ADODB.Connection") or die("Cannot start ADO");
$db->open($connectString);

// Drop & recreate the table
$db->Execute ($sqlTableDrop);
$db->Execute ($sqlTableCreate);

// Insert the test data
//$testString = "The NULL character should be escaped !";
$testString = "This is a test string.";
$res = $db->Execute("insert into ljmtemp (col1) values ('$testString')");
if (!$res) die ("INSERT failed");

// Disconnect from the db
$db->Close();

?>



And it results in:




C:MyServer>php testMsSqlInsertNull.php
PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'com_exception' with message 'Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers
Description: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Unclosed quotation mark after the character string 'The NULL character should be escaped '.' in C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php:27
Stack trace:
#0 C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php(27): com->Execute('insert into ljm...')
#1 {main}
thrown in C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php on line 27



I'm not sure if this is the same problem as Gallery is reporting or another one.

It looks like somebody is treating the as a string terminator, but when i double the backslash the literal '' is inserted into the database.

How can I get SQL Server to insert at least everything up to the ?

Hopefully once I have my simple script working I'll be able to figure out what's wrong in the Gallery test.

Thanks.