Help me become a better developer!

[eluser]Rick Jolly[/eluser]
Two things come to mind:

1. escape your sql

Code:

// you could let CI escape your sql automatically by using query bindings:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM awNewsComments WHERE comments_news_id = ? ORDER BY comments_id DESC";
$this->db->query($sql, array($news_id));

2. beware of sql injection. For example, you could verify that $news_id is a number (and therefore you would know $news_id isn't some malicious sql). EDIT: Ah, you checked for a number, sorry I missed it the first time.