"string (12" or 1 foot or 1') into 6" MySQL varchar"
into...
"string (12"" or 1 foot or 1') into 6"" MySQL varchar"

The string already has the leading and trailing quotes and my best effort does..
""string (12"" or 1 foot or 1') into 6"" MySQL varchar""

I hacked my way around it with...
      if ((substr($t,0,1) eq '"') && (length($t) > 2)) {
          for ($ndx=1; $ndx < length($t)-1; $ndx++) {
              if (substr($t,$ndx,1) eq '"') {
                  substr($t,$ndx,1) = '""';
                  $ndx++;
              }
          }
      }
But there must be a better (^\D#) solution.