Escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement, taking into account the current charset of the connection

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- Escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement, taking into account the current charset of the connection

# mysqli::real_escape_string

# mysqli_real_escape_string

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

mysqli::real_escape_string -- mysqli_real_escape_string — Escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement, taking into account the current charset of the connection

### Description

Object-oriented style

public mysqli::real_escape_string(string `$string`): string

Procedural style

mysqli_real_escape_string(mysqli `$mysql`, string `$string`): string

This function is used to create a legal SQL string that you can use in an SQL statement. The given string is encoded to produce an escaped SQL string, taking into account the current character set of the connection.

Caution

# Security: the default character set

The character set must be set either at the server level, or with the API function mysqli_set_charset() for it to affect mysqli_real_escape_string(). See the concepts section on character sets for more information.

### Parameters

`mysql`

  Procedural style only: A mysqli object returned by mysqli_connect() or mysqli_init()

`string`

  The string to be escaped.

  Characters encoded are `NUL (ASCII 0)`, `\n`, `\r`, `\`, `'`, `"`, and ``CTRL`+`Z``.

### Return Values

Returns an escaped string.

### Examples

Example #1 mysqli::real_escape_string() example

Object-oriented style

    <?phpmysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "my_user", "my_password", "world");$city = "'s-Hertogenbosch";/* this query with escaped $city will work */$query = sprintf("SELECT CountryCode FROM City WHERE name='%s'",    $mysqli->real_escape_string($city));$result = $mysqli->query($query);printf("Select returned %d rows.\n", $result->num_rows);/* this query will fail, because we didn't escape $city */$query = sprintf("SELECT CountryCode FROM City WHERE name='%s'", $city);$result = $mysqli->query($query);

Procedural style

    <?phpmysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);$mysqli = mysqli_connect("localhost", "my_user", "my_password", "world");$city = "'s-Hertogenbosch";/* this query with escaped $city will work */$query = sprintf("SELECT CountryCode FROM City WHERE name='%s'",    mysqli_real_escape_string($mysqli, $city));$result = mysqli_query($mysqli, $query);printf("Select returned %d rows.\n", mysqli_num_rows($result));/* this query will fail, because we didn't escape $city */$query = sprintf("SELECT CountryCode FROM City WHERE name='%s'", $city);$result = mysqli_query($mysqli, $query);

The above examples will output something similar to:

    Select returned 1 rows.

    Fatal error: Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 's-Hertogenbosch'' at line 1 in...

### See Also

- mysqli_set_charset() - Sets the client character set