Url link

Hey there, I'm trying to build NEXT/PREV buttons on my search page. The only way I know to do it so far is via an url. So the link I create is the following: http://monster/search1.php?offset=0&submit=submitted&where=historical_yn%3D% 27N%27+and+fname+like+%27%25%25%27+and+lname+like+%27%25%25%27+and+dept+like +%27%2510%25%27+and+locid+like+%27%25%25%27+ I'm passing the where= portion as a variable to my query string. $query = "select blah from employee where $where order by blah limit blah" But it makes the where section into this: select id, lname, fname, extension, locid, email from employee where historical_yn=\'N\' and fname like \'%%\' and lname like \'%%\' and dept like \'%10%\' and locid like \'%%\' order by lname limit 1,20 The problem is it's putting \'s in the where variable and it makes the query fail. Does anyone know how best to get rid of the \'s or a better way to do next/prev buttons? Thanks!!! Mark