public function escape($data) {

		if(null === $data) {
			return $data;
		}

		if(false === is_string($data) && false === is_numeric($data)) {
			return trigger_error(sprintf('Argument 1 passed to %s() must be of the type string, float or int, "%s" given', __METHOD__, gettype($data)), E_USER_ERROR);
		}

		if(null === $this -> connection) {
			$this -> connect();
		}

		return $this -> connection -> real_escape_string($data);
	}