Index: includes/database.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/includes/database.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.45
diff -u -p -r1.45 database.inc
--- includes/database.inc	12 Sep 2005 20:13:04 -0000	1.45
+++ includes/database.inc	4 Oct 2005 14:29:10 -0000
@@ -140,8 +140,16 @@ function db_set_active($name = 'default'
  *   A string containing an SQL query.
  * @param ...
  *   A variable number of arguments which are substituted into the query using
- *   printf() syntax. Instead of a variable number of query arguments, you may
- *   also pass a single array containing the query arguments.
+ *   printf() syntax. The query arguments can be enclosed in one array instead.
+ *   For INSERT and UPDATE queries the arguments should be present in an 
+ *   array in which the keys name the database columns. For UPDATE queries
+ *   additional parameters can be passed as single arguments after the array.
+ *   Examples:
+ *   db_query('INSERT INTO {node} %a', array('nid' => 42, 'title' => 'foo bar', ...));
+ *   db_query('UPDATE {node} SET %a WHERE nid = %d', array('uid' => 42, 'title' => 'foo bar'), $node->nid);
+ *
+ *   NOTE: Using this syntax will cast NULL values to decimal 0.
+ *
  * @return
  *   A database query result resource, or FALSE if the query was not executed
  *   correctly.
@@ -150,8 +158,19 @@ function db_query($query) {
   $args = func_get_args();
   $query = db_prefix_tables($query);
   if (count($args) > 1) {
+    if (strpos($query, '%a') !== FALSE) {
+      $keys = array_keys($args[1]);
+      $placeholders = call_user_func_array('array_merge', array_map('_db_argument_type', $keys, $args[1]));
+      if (substr($query, 0, 6) === 'INSERT') {
+        $replace = '('. implode(', ', $keys) .') VALUES ('. implode(', ', array_values($placeholders)) .')';
+      }
+      else if (substr($query, 0, 6) === 'UPDATE') {
+        $replace = implode(', ', array_keys($placeholders));
+      }
+      $query = str_replace('%a', $replace, $query);
+    }
     if (is_array($args[1])) {
-      $args = array_merge(array($query), $args[1]);
+      $args = array_merge(array($query), $args[1], array_slice($args, 2));
     }
     $args = array_map('db_escape_string', $args);
     $args[0] = $query;
@@ -280,6 +299,27 @@ function db_rewrite_sql($query, $primary
 }
 
 /**
+ * Helper function for db_query
+ * @see db_query().
+ *
+ * @param $key
+ *        Database column
+ * @param $value
+ *        Query argument
+ * @return
+ *        Array containing $key and sprintf modifier as key and sprintf modifier
+ *        as value.
+ */
+function _db_argument_type($key, $value) {
+  if (is_int($value) || is_bool($value) || is_null($value)) {
+    return array("$key = %d" => '%d');
+  }
+  else {
+    return array("$key = '%s'" => "'%s'");
+  }
+}
+
+/**
  * @} End of "defgroup database".
  */