PHP: different quotes?

Question

What is the difference between the quotes " and ' ? What about `? Is there an error in using different quotes ' and " below?

 $result = pg_query_params($dbconn,
      'INSERT INTO users 
      (username, email, passhash_md5)
      VALUES ($1, $2, $3)',
          array($username, $email, $passhash_md5
      )


      $result = pg_query_params( $dbconn,
          "SELECT user_id
           FROM users
          WHERE email = $1",
          array( $email )
          )

Answer 1

Variable-substitution isn't done when using single quotes ('), meaning that the values in your first example would literally be $1 $2 etc if it was a regular string and not passed on to a function that replaces them.

If you don't need variable-substitiution, it's better to stick with single quotes for performance reasons.

`` invokes the shell-engine and invokes it as an actual command, and returning the result, just like in perl. Hence, it has a completely different meaning.

examples:

$email = 'user@example.org';
$sql1 = "SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email = $email";
$sql2 = 'SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email = $email';

$sql1 would be SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email = user@example.org

$sql2 would be SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email = $email