mysql_escape_string is a function that was used in older versions of PHP to escape special characters in a string before it is inserted into a MySQL database . It was designed to prevent SQL injection attacks by ensuring that any special characters in the string are properly encoded and escaped.
The function took a single string as its input and returned a new string with all special characters properly escaped. This included characters such as single quotes, double quotes, backslashes, and NULL characters. The function was used in conjunction with the mysql_query function to safely insert data into a MySQL database.
However, the mysql_escape_string function is now considered to be deprecated and should not be used in modern PHP applications. Instead, the recommended approach is to use prepared statements or parameterized queries, which provide a more secure and reliable way to insert data into a MySQL database. Prepared statements allow SQL queries to be executed multiple times with different parameters, and the parameters are automatically escaped and quoted by the database driver, making it less prone to SQL injection attacks.