Yii – Updating a MySQL datetime column with now()

Just a quick tip which took me a little while to figure out.

If you have a “last_updated” column on your table and you want to update this manually in your code ten the easiest way would be use the MySQL NOW() function

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UPDATE some_table SET last_updated_date=now();
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However, and there is always a catch, if you try and use the now() function in a Yii prepared statement, it will try and update the column with the string “now()” and fail.

What you need to do is to use a CDBExpression object as follows:-

 PHP | 
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$command->insert('some_table', 
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                   array(
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                            'id'=>$id,
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                            /.. other columns
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                            'last_updated_dt'=>new CDbExpression('NOW()')
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                        ));