Worked in 1.5 but gives error in 1.7.1

[eluser]citryer[/eluser]
You are absolutely correct...

Looked closely at the docs after your comments.

$this->db->select() accepts an optional second parameter. If you set it to FALSE, CodeIgniter will not try to protect your field or table names with backticks. This is useful if you need a compound select statement.

appreciate your help.

Thanks.