Use SQL placeholders and you won't have to worry about it: 
$sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT SUM(number) FROM $serverTable where name 
+= ?");
$sth->execute("O'Connor");

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This will also improve performance if you run the query more than once, since it doesn't need to be re-prepared each time.

In reply to Re: escape characters for dbi by dsheroh
in thread escape characters for dbi by Baz

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