Escaping characters to submit to MySQL

[Anon]

I am building a simple newsletter submission\ and sending app, and I am having problems with sending text type to db.

All of my submissions are terminated with the first apostrophe or quote. What is the best way to escape these characters before submission?

[Anon]

Nevermind. I'm half asleep. Brain cramps.

[Anon]

$safe_string = htmlspecialchar($dodgy_string, ENT_QUOTES);