Newbie Variable Question

Hi, All, A php variable question. I've done this to take the requested category from the URL (www.foo.com/file.htm?r=1) and use it to build the page: if (isset($_GET['r']) && !empty($_GET['r'])) { $r = "'{$_GET['r']}'"; //Set the variable $r to mean the category number $fields = '*'; } else { $where = ''; $fields = 'cv.cv_id,cv.category,dates,cv.job_title,cv.company,cv.job,cv.sort, jobcat.category'; $sort = "ORDER BY cv.sort"; } $sql = " SELECT cv.cv_id,cv.category,dates,cv.job_title,cv.company,cv.job,cv.sort,jobcat.category FROM cv, cvjobcats, jobcat WHERE cvjobcats.cv_id=cv.cv_id AND cvjobcats.jobcat_id = $r AND jobcat.jobcat_id=cvjobcats.jobcat_id"; In this case $r comes out literally to the number surrounded by single quotes (ie, '1'). And it works great. But I need *just* the number for something later (to fetch an include based on the category selected by $r). Since I've set the value of the field cv.category to mean the english translation from the intersecting table, using <php include_once "/path/to/cv.$r.include.php"; ?> asks for cv.'1'.include.php ... And I need it to ask for cv.1.include.php How can I make a variable to fetch the literal number from the field cv.category? Thanks in advance! Jack