html special characters & mysql

[eluser]NikosV[/eluser]
ok.. here is my problem. i have got a functions that gets as input a keyword and searches into the database for that keyword. The problem is that when the keyword contains a special character (in my case a parenthesis) it doesn't return any results unless i have saved the characters in the database using their code For example:  0; for parenthesis. Is there a way so that i can avoid entering the code in the database?

thanks in advance.