What This Tool Does
This tool takes a raw string and shows you what it looks like once escaped for safe use inside a SQL query, for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and standard SQL side by side. It also tells you whether the string actually contains anything that needs escaping in the first place.
How to Escape a String for SQL
Type or paste the string you want to use inside a SQL query, a name, search term, or any other value. The escaped version for each dialect updates as you type, along with the parameterized-query placeholder for that dialect, ready to copy into your code.
Why Dialects Escape Differently
MySQL treats backslash as an escape character by default, so it escapes backslashes, quotes, and control characters like newline and null with a leading backslash. PostgreSQL (with standard_conforming_strings, the default since 9.1), SQLite, and standard SQL all treat backslash as a plain character, a literal single quote is escaped by doubling it instead. Using the wrong dialect's escaping produces broken, or exploitable, SQL.
Escaping Is Not a Substitute for Parameterized Queries
Manually escaping and concatenating strings into SQL is error-prone, one missed edge case and you're back to an injection vulnerability. Parameterized queries (prepared statements) send the value separately from the query text, so the database never interprets it as SQL, that's why every dialect card also shows its placeholder syntax (? for MySQL and SQLite, $1 for PostgreSQL) as the recommended approach for real application code.
Common Uses for a SQL Escape Tool
Quickly checking what a value with an apostrophe, like an Irish surname or a possessive in a search term, looks like once escaped, debugging a query that broke because of unescaped input, and learning the difference between MySQL-style and standard SQL-style escaping are all common reasons to use this tool. Use it as a sql injection prevention tool to escape single quotes sql style, compare a mysql escape string against a postgresql escape string or sqlite escape string side by side, run sql string escaping online to escape sql special characters, and see the sql parameterized query placeholder you should actually reach for to prevent sql injection in real code.