Question

I have a variable which I need to strip of sybols before inserting into my database, any ideas how I would add the mysql_real_escape_string() function to my existing code?

Form page

This page is a basic html form which shows the database content.

<?php 
 $query = sprintf( "SELECT * FROM sitecontent WHERE ID = $_GET[id]");
$result = mysql_query($query) or die (mysql_error());
$post = mysql_fetch_array($result);

   ?>

       <form action="editp.php" method="POST" name="editform">
    <label for="pName" style="padding:10px; ">Post Title</label>
    <input type="text" name="pName" style=" width:550px;border:#000099; margin:10px;"   value="<?php echo $post['Post_Title']; ?>"/>
    <label for="pCategory" style="padding:10px; ">Category</label>
    <input type="text" name="pCategory" style=" width:50px;border:#000099; margin:10px;" value="<?php echo $post['Post_Year']; ?>"/>
    <label for="pItem" style="padding:10px;">Item Type</label>
   <select name="pItem" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;">
    <option value="1">News</option>
   <option value="2">Review</option>
 </select>
 <label for="pName" style="padding:10px;">Article ID</label>
      <input type="text" name="pID" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;" value="<?php echo $post['ID']; ?>"/>
  <label for="pName" style="padding:10px;">Post Date</label>
   <input type="text"  name="pDate" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;" value="<?php echo $post['Date']; ?>">
   <label for="pName" style="padding:10px;">Post Author</label>
 <input type="text" name="pAuthor" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;" value="<?php echo $post['Post_Author']; ?>"/>
   <label for="pName" style="padding:10px;">Home Page</label>
  <select name="Page" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;">
  <option value="0">None</option>
  <option value="1">Home</option>
 </select>
 <label for="pPriority" style="padding:10px;">Home Priority</label>
   <select name="pPriority" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;">
 <option value="0">None</option>
  <option value="1">1</option>
  <option value="2">2</option>
  <option value="3">3</option>
  <option value="4">4</option>
  </select>
    <label for="pName" style="padding:10px;">Post Content</label>
  <textarea style="width:550px; height:200px;border:#000099; margin:10px;" type="text" name="pContent" id="pContent" value="<?php echo $post['Post_Content']; ?>"><?php echo $post['Post_Content']; ?></textarea>
    <span id="btnStrong" style="  padding: 2px 8px;background-color:#C00;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#FFF; cursor:pointer;">Bold</span> &nbsp; <span id="btnItalic" style=" padding: 2px 8px; background-color:#C00;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#FFF; cursor:pointer;">Italic</span>
   <label for="pImage_Name" style="padding:10px;">Image Name</label>
   <input type="text" name="pImage_Name" style="border:#000099; margin:10px; width:550px;" value="<?php echo $post['Image_Name']; ?>"/>
   <label for="pApproval" style="padding:10px;">Approval</label>
   <select name="pApproval" style="border:#000099; margin:10px;">
  <option value="0">Pending</option>
  <option value="1">Approved</option>
  </select>
   <input type="hidden" name="id" value="<?php echo $_GET['id']; ?>"/>
     <span style="margin-left:10px;">Please check the changes above before submitting</span>                <br/>
   <input type="submit" name="go" value="Submit Changes" style=" padding: 2px 8px;background-color:#C00; color:#FFF; margin:10px;"/>
   </form>

   <?php
$updateq = "UPDATE sitecontent WHERE ID = '$_POST[id]'";
   ?>

Update page

This is the page that writes the content from the form to the database.

    <?php
 include'includes/connection.php';
 $pName = $_POST['pName'];
 $pItem = $_POST['pItem'];
 $pCategory = $_POST['pCategory'];
 $pDate = $_POST['pDate'];
 $pAuthor = $_POST['pAuthor'];
 $pContent = $_POST['pContent'];
 $Page = $_POST['Page'];
 $id = $_POST['id'];
 $pApproval = $_POST['pApproval'];
 $pPriority = $_POST['pPriority'];
 $pImage_Name = $_POST['pImage_Name'];

 $updateq = "UPDATE sitecontent SET ID = '$pID', Post_Title = '$pName', Post_Year =      '$pCategory', Date = '$pDate', Post_Author = '$pAuthor', Post_Content = '$pContent', Page =      '$Page', Post_Approval = '$pApproval', Priority = '$pPriority', Image_Name = '$pImage_Name'      WHERE ID = '$_POST[id]'";

 $result = mysql_query($updateq) or die (mysql_error());
 header("Location:admin.php");

 ?>

Answer 1

For strings just say:

$pName = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['pName']);

For integers:

$id = intval($_POST['id']);

That’s all there is to it; just do it for all your variables

edit
Anyways, I’d advise you to use PDO in stead, way better to prevent sql injection!