FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: Rusty Wright [mailto:rusty AT socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
> Sent: June 20, 2003 12:55 PM
> 
> Is there a way to "quote" an apostrophe or single quote for MS SQL
> when inserting a string with a single quote in it?  Or some way to
> embed it as part of the string (for example, like url encoding)?
> 
> I'm using PHP and Pear.  I've tried doubling the single quote, and
> preceding it with a backslash; neither way works.

You should be able to double the single quote:

1> select 'It''s alright. Da doo du da doo du....'
2> go

 -------------------------------------
 It's alright. Da doo du da doo du....

That's the only standard way, afaik.  It works in tsql and sqsh.  If it
doesn't work in PHP, it's a bug.  You could work around it with:

1> select 'It' + char(39) + 's alright'
2> go

 ------------
 It's alright

You can also alternate quoting characters (select "It's alright").  

Note these are SQL quoting rules, which are weird.  Other languages have
their own.  I don't use PHP, so I don't know how strings are expressed, but
for instance Perl wouldn't permit doubling up the quote; the delimiting
character can't appear in the string without being escaped.  (Fortunately
Perl is very flexible on the point, accepting as a delimiter single or
double quotes, or even any arbitrary character prefixed with "qq".)  

HTH.  

--jkl
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