protect from special characters like "\"

[eluser]nikos[/eluser]
Hello guys...

i have a serious problem in my application.

i have a search form. Every time i fill a value in a text field with something like this: xxx\ then the sql query is broken. Probably if the character \ is the last in the text field then i have serious problem.

What should i do for this?

And is there a functionality in codeigniter to protect from special characters?

I am waiting for your precious helping.

Thanks a lot