if(ini_get(‘magic_quotes_gpc’)) {

$var = stripslashes($var);

}

// Stripslashes if magic quotes has already added them
if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) 
    {
         $d = stripslashes($d);
    }

But, Tom! You are two! ;o

But, I’ll see if I can explain it a bit differently. I’m probably dumbing down a bit too much here so bear with me…

Abstraction of any kind is a way to take a function, wrap it up in a user defined class & function, and essentially redefine it. The benefit of this is that when you then use it around your site you can easily make updates to the one class and how it works to update the whole site. This is particularly beneficial when upgrading systems. For example, to move from mysql php functions in php4 to mysqli functions in php5 will require minor tweaks to this one file and I’ll be off to the races on php5 and mysql-improved functions accross my site and in any other classes that use it to manage db connections in no time at all. Simple as that. Even if I need to retool it to work with postgres or mssql, a few tweaks to the existing functions and the site can talk to a different type of database (with little tweaks to the existing query strings of course).

This particular class is for connecting to mysql databases. It is a class that takes most of the work out of pulling data from databases and makes it an easy switch to then write back into them (ie: use a simple read only user to do most of the calls and then use a seldom called read/write user when writing to the database is required). It manages everything from selecting the database, formatting returns into numbered or associative arrays, and even error reporting and emailing of errors to the site admin. All you have to do is make sure your server address, database name, usernames and passwords are good to go. While not perfect is does do a lot. Most settings can be overridden at runtime, or locked out by the admin so that anyone else using it on the server can’t alter its usage. I’ll make better provisions for mulitple databases in the future – I just got a good idea for it while writing this…

Does that answer the question?