The safest way to avoid SQL injection in PHP?

Question

I just wonder if this line of code is safe to use to avoid SQL injection?

// username and password sent from form 
$myusername=$_POST['loginUserName']; 
$mypassword=$_POST['loginPassword'];

$myusername = stripslashes($myusername);
$mypassword = stripslashes($mypassword);
$myusername = mysql_real_escape_string($myusername);
$mypassword = mysql_real_escape_string($mypassword);

Do I need to stripslashes?

Answer 1

It's safer to use prepared statements, so that the (potentially malicious) values are separated from the query string, rather than relying on escaping. Read about PHP Data Objects .

Regarding stripslashes() , that should only be necessary if you have PHP's magic_quotes_gpc feature turned on, which you shouldn't because it's deprecated. If you want to be robust, though, do if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) $myusername = stripslashes($myusername); so that it removes a layer of slashes if and only if one was added.