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Equivalent function of mysql_real_escape_string() in C#

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25 Oct 2012 1  
Implement function in C# to emulate functionality of mysql_real_escape_string() C API function.

Introduction

Implement function in C# to emulate functionality of mysql_real_escape_string() C API function.

Background 

When writing application programs, any string that might contain any of these special characters must be properly escaped before the string is used as a data value in an SQL statement that is sent to the MySQL server.

MySQL Reference: Special Character Escape Sequences

Using the code 

string SQL = string.Format("SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName='{0}' AND Password='{1}'", MySQLEscape(Username), MySQLEscape(Password));
MySqlCommand cmd = new MySqlCommand(SQL, this.connection);

private static string MySQLEscape(string str)
{
    return Regex.Replace(str, @"[\x00'""\b\n\r\t\cZ\\%_]",
        delegate(Match match)
        {
            string v = match.Value;
            switch (v)
            {
                case "\x00":            // ASCII NUL (0x00) character
                    return "\\0";   
                case "\b":              // BACKSPACE character
                    return "\\b";
                case "\n":              // NEWLINE (linefeed) character
                    return "\\n";
                case "\r":              // CARRIAGE RETURN character
                    return "\\r";
                case "\t":              // TAB
                    return "\\t";
                case "\u001A":          // Ctrl-Z
                    return "\\Z";
                default:
                    return "\\" + v;
            }
        });
} 

Interesting

A straightforward, though error-prone, way to prevent SQL injections is to escape characters that have a special meaning in SQL.

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