[eluser]CroNiX[/eluser]
It should be legal. Try it in raw mysql. The field is in the first parameter to the IF clause. The return values are the 2nd, or 3rd depending on if the first parameter equated to true/false. Maybe he wants a decimal returned and not a string, which is what he would get if it was surrounded by quotes.
This is valid mysql:
Code:
select if(1 = 1, .01, .05) as test;
and will return a decimal value, 0.01, as test.