Title: wpdb::_real_escape
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# wpdb::_real_escape( string $data ): string

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Real escape using mysqli_real_escape_string().

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [mysqli_real_escape_string()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/mysqli_real_escape_string/)

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$data`stringrequired

String to escape.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string Escaped string.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function _real_escape( $data ) {
    	if ( ! is_scalar( $data ) ) {
    		return '';
    	}

    	if ( $this->dbh ) {
    		$escaped = mysqli_real_escape_string( $this->dbh, $data );
    	} else {
    		$class = get_class( $this );

    		wp_load_translations_early();
    		/* translators: %s: Database access abstraction class, usually wpdb or a class extending wpdb. */
    		_doing_it_wrong( $class, sprintf( __( '%s must set a database connection for use with escaping.' ), $class ), '3.6.0' );

    		$escaped = addslashes( $data );
    	}

    	return $this->add_placeholder_escape( $escaped );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php#L1277)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php#L1277-L1295)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [wpdb::add_placeholder_escape()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/add_placeholder_escape/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Adds a placeholder escape string, to escape anything that resembles a printf() placeholder.

  | 
| [wp_load_translations_early()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_load_translations_early/)`wp-includes/load.php` |

Attempts an early load of translations.

  | 
| [__()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/__/)`wp-includes/l10n.php` |

Retrieves the translation of $text.

  | 
| [_doing_it_wrong()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_doing_it_wrong/)`wp-includes/functions.php` |

Marks something as being incorrectly called.

  |

[Show 2 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#)
[Show less](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#)

| Used by | Description | 
| [wpdb::_escape()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_escape/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Escapes data. Works on arrays.

  | 
| [wpdb::escape_by_ref()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/escape_by_ref/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Escapes content by reference for insertion into the database, for security.

  | 
| [wpdb::prepare()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/prepare/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Prepares a SQL query for safe execution.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/_real_escape/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.8.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.8.0/) | Introduced. |

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