How to programmatically delete all values in custom CCK field for a given node?

Question

I'm on Drupal 6, and I have a multiple value CCK field. I need a PHP function to delete all the values in that field so I can later repopulate it. I am currently doing this:

if (isset($node->field_received_email[0]['value'])) {
  foreach($node->field_received_email as $key => $value) {
    $node->field_received_email[$key]['value'] = NULL;
  }
}

However, sometimes when I later repopulate it, I get Drupal dblog errors like:

Duplicate entry '16026-133' for key 'PRIMARY' query: INSERT INTO content_field_received_email (vid, nid, delta, field_received_email_value) VALUES (16026, 15888, 133, '[email protected]')

It appears that the primary key is remaining, and so when I go to write data again to the field it gives the duplicate primary key error.

Any suggestions on how to really delete all the values and keys from a multiple value CCK field in a given node so I can later re-write them?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Try to unset item

if (isset($node->field_received_email[0]['value'])) {
  foreach($node->field_received_email as $key => $value) {
    unset($node->field_received_email[$key]);
  }
}