The quotemeta() function adds backslashes in front of some predefined characters in a string.

This function can be used to escape characters with special meanings, such as ( ), [ ], and * in SQL.

This function is binary-safe.

The predefined characters are:

• period (.)
• backslash (\)
• plus sign (+)
• asterisk (*)
• question mark (?)
• brackets ([])
• caret (^)c
• dollar sign ($)
• parenthesis (())

Example

<?php
 $str = "PHP Codez. (Welcome)";
 echo quotemeta($str);
?>

It outputs PHP Codez\. \(Welcome\)