Simple query not working

[eluser]mabright[/eluser]
I know this is a simple problem but I haven't coded in awhile and I know I'm missing something simple. It's driving me crazy.

If I do the following, I get no error but no result returned.

Code:

function get_region($country,$state)
    {
        $country = strtoupper(trim($country));
        $state   = strtoupper(trim($state));
        
        $sql = "SELECT `region` FROM `my_region_table`
                       WHERE UPPER(`country`) = '".$country."'
                       AND   UPPER(`description`) = '".$state."'";
                
        $query = $this->db->query($sql);
        if ($query->num_rows() > 0)
        {
            $row = $query->row();
            return $row->region;
        }
    }

However, when I hard code the values, all works fine.

Code:

function get_region($country,$state)
    {
        $country = strtoupper(trim($country));
        $state   = strtoupper(trim($state));
        
        $sql = "SELECT `region` FROM `my_region_table`
                       WHERE UPPER(`country`) = 'US'
                       AND   UPPER(`description`) = 'GEORGIA'";
                
        $query = $this->db->query($sql);
        if ($query->num_rows() > 0)
        {
            $row = $query->row();
            return $row->region;
        }
    }