preg_replace with \'s and "'s

Hi- I need to search a string for single and double quotation marks, and replace them with escaped versions (\", \'), because I sending the string as a value to a MySql database (and it doesn't accept non-escaped characters). First of all, I was wondering if there is a way to escape all characters from a string that have a special meaning in SQL (without having to enter all characters into an array and do a search and replace with them). This is how I've been doing it: $value="String with \"Double Quotations\" and 'Single Quotations'"; $value=preg_replace("/\"/", "/\\\"/", $value); $value=preg_replace("/'/", "/\\'/", $value); print $value; However, php returns an error on the preg_replace commands. Apparently I can't search and replace with/for \'s, "'s, 's? I've been playing around with this for quite some time, and seem to have come up against a brick wall. I don't know how to fix it. Any tips, suggestions, fixes, etc would be much appreciated! Antonio