sanitize textarea input for database insertion - best practice

Thx for the feedback. Below seems to work fairly well.

@InsiteFX.. I threw your code into my helper file. Thx.

So here is what I have:
Controller:
- Validate:

Code:

$this->form_validation->set_rules('f_text', 'Review Text', 'required|trim|callback_customAlphaTwo');

 - the callback

Code:

   public function customAlphaTwo($str)
   {
       if (!preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9 .,\-\'\&\–\—\«\»\…\$\[\]\/\(\)\“\”\‘\’\!\;\:\é]*$/m', $str)) {
           return FALSE;
       } else {
           return TRUE;
       }
   }

- clean Text

Code:

$tCleanText = cleanText($this->input->post('f_text'));

- Save Data

Code:

$aDataToSave = array(
 'far_text' => $tCleanText,
 // more stuff
)
$tinsert = $this->admindata->savedata($aDataToSave);

Note: cleanText() is a helper

Model:
- Insert

Code:

   // Save Data
   public function savedata($tdata)
   {
       return $this->db->insert('db_table', $tdata);
   }