$_POST in MySQL query issue...

Greetings to all. I am trying for the life of me to place a $_POST[] variable in my MySQL query. I am running the latest stable versions of PHP, MySQL and Apache 2 on my Win2kPro machine. My register_globals are set to off in my php.ini. My code I am attempting create is basically as follows: $table="elements"; $sql="insert into $table set Name = '$elementName'"; This works with register_globals set to on. But, I want to be able to turn that off. My code then, I am guessing, be something as follows: $table="elements"; $sql="insert into $table set Name = '$_POST["elementName"]'"; Unfortunately this and every other combination I can think of, combinations of quotes that is, does not work. I believe the source of the problem is the quotes within quotes within quotes. I also tried: $sql='insert into $table set Name = '.$_POST["elementName"]; or $sql="insert into $table set Name = ".$_POST['elementName']; and several other variations. Can anyone give me some pointers to inserting $_POST[] statements inside of query statements? I am sure there must be a way but I have spent a lot of time on this and am really stumped here. Thanks for any help. -Adam Reiswig PS if anything here is not clear to you, please let me know and I'll clarify as I can. Thanks again.