PHP Functions Essential Reference

quotemeta

string quotemeta(string string) 

Escapes meta characters within a string.

Returns:

String

Description:

quotemeta() escapes any meta characters within a string with a single leading backslash. The function considers the following characters to be meta characters:

• asterisk (*)

• backslash (\)

• brackets ([])

• caret (^)

• dollar sign ($)

• parenthesis (())

• period (.)

• plus sign (+)

• question mark (?)

This function is useful for escaping characters that may have special meaning in contexts such as SQL query strings or regular expressions.

Version:

PHP 3+, PHP 4+

See also:

Other functions that escape meta characters with a backslash:

addslashes() 
addcslashes() 
preg_quote() 

To strip backslashes from a string:

stripslashes() 

Example:

Escape a string