title: Wordpress database insert() and update() - using NULL values
body: <p>Wordpress ships with the <code>wpdb</code> class which handles CRUD operations. The two methods of this class that I'm interested in are the <code>insert()</code> (the C in CRUD) and <code>update()</code> (the U in CRUD).</p>
  
  <p>A problem arises when I want to insert a NULL into a mysql database column - the <code>wpdb</code> class escapes PHP null variables to empty strings. How can I tell Wordpress to use an actual MySQL <code>NULL</code> instead of a MySQL string?</p>