How to Escape Single Quotes in SQL

Escaping Single Quotes in SQL

Have you ever tried to use a single quote in a SQL query, only to find that it doesn't work? If so, you're not alone! Single quotes are a special character in SQL, and they need to be escaped in order to be used properly. Fortunately, there's an easy way to do this.

The Solution

The solution is to use two single quotes in place of one. This is known as "escaping" the single quote, and it tells the database that the single quote is part of the string, rather than the end of it. For example, if you wanted to search for the string John's, you would use the following query:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE name = 'John''s';

Examples

Let's look at a few examples of how this works in practice. Suppose you have a table called users with the following data:

name      age
----------------
John      25
John's    30
John      25
Bob       20

If you wanted to search for the row with the name John's, you would use the following query:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = 'John''s';

This query would return the row with the name John's and the age 30.

Additional Info

Escaping single quotes is a standard feature of SQL, and it works the same way in most major databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. However, the syntax may vary slightly depending on the database you are using. For more information, check out the documentation for your particular database. 🤓