title: PHP MySql Real Escape String not working
body: <p>I am trying to read and write to a database. Here is the code I have so far:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$mysql = mysqli_connect("example.com", "johndoe", "abc123"); // replace with actual credidentials
  $username = mysqli_real_escape_string("username");
  $sql = "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS dbname";
  if (!mysqli_query($mysql, $sql)) {
      echo "Error creating database: " . mysqli_error($mysql);
  }
  if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
      echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
  }
  mysqli_close($mysql);
  $mysql = mysqli_connect("example.com", "johndoe", "abc123", "dbname"); // replace with actual credidentials
  $sql = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Users(ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY(ID), username CHAR(15), password CHAR(15), email CHAR(50))";
  if (!mysqli_query($mysql, $sql)) {
      echo "Error creating table: " . mysqli_error($mysql);
  }
  $sql = "INSERT INTO Users(username, password, email) VALUES(" . $username . ", " . $password . ", " . $email . ")";
  if (!mysqli_query($mysql, $sql)) {
      echo "Error: " . mysqli_error($mysql);
  }
  mysqli_close($mysql);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, when I try to run it, it has an error: </p>
  
  <pre><code>Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ' , )' at line 1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Could anybody tell me how to fix this?</p>