variable won't go into database

[turpentyne]

I'm stumped on what's causing this problem. $descriptor2 is entering "0". But $_POST['States'] does have a value. I put $testable in as a variable to test that in place of descriptor2 and it works just fine.

 

$descriptor1 = isset($_GET['id']) ? (int)$_GET['id'] : null;
$descriptor2 = isset($_POST['States']) ? (int)$_POST['state'] : null;
$descriptor3 = isset($_POST['continent_regions']) ? (int)$_POST['continent_regions'] : null;
$descriptor4 = isset($_POST['Continents']) ? (int)$_POST['Continents'] : null;
$descriptor5 = isset($_POST['Country']) ? (int)$_POST['Country'] : null;  

$testable = $_POST['States']; // my test variable

$query = "INSERT INTO plant_locations_link(plant_id,state,continent_regions,continents,country) VALUES ($descriptor1,$descriptor2,$descriptor3,$descriptor4,$descriptor5)";
// if I change descriptor2 to testable, it inputs the number I need. 

[turpentyne]

Gah! Neeeever mind... I spotted the discrepancy as soon as I finished posting.

[Pikachu2000]

It looks like most of the values are strings, but none of them are quoted in the query string, and there's a field/value count mismatch.