stripslashes etc.

Hello, all. I'm getting a bit confused figuring out the best way to insert data into a db via web forms and then pull it out again safely. I know there's lots of information out there, but I was hoping someone could suggest a current, [easy!] best practice. Specifically, I have the following surely common set of situations: 1. user submits info to db --how best to screen out html / escape special characters on insert 2. info is publicly displayed -- how best to unescape special characters for display 3. user edits their submission in form populated with their existing data --again, to screen, but not have the escape characters multiply crazily 4. user updates db --again, without additional of exciting new escape characters I'm getting a bit mixed up through all the stages, and if someone would take pity and walk me through this, I, um, would thank you sincerely. TIA, Andrew