Issues with complex queries in Query Builder and protected identifiers

To clarify: the only thing in the examples I included which has anything to do with the use of MySQL is the use of ` as the escape character in the driver (as defined by the mysqli_driver) and the resulting output. If other drivers give a different result, it may be because there happens to be special behavior in escape_identifiers() related to the default escape character ("), which is used by the drivers for most other databases.

The use of the word "escape" in both the original post and this one is strictly because I am referencing the terminology used within the DB_driver and related code. The documentation implies that this is done for the purposes of producing safer queries, though, as you have mentioned, in many cases it does little to do so.

Of course, given the 200-something reserved words in MySQL (or the 800+ identified when using multiple sources), I'd really have to take a close look at all of my tables to make sure I'm not using any invalid column names before disabling the feature globally.

Bonfire

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