I\'m using a simple $wpdb query that searches the database for all other posts with the same title as the current one and then displays a link to them on the current post.

So if I go to a post titled RED SHOES it will display at the top of the screen a link to all other posts with the title RED SHOES.

It works fine for all post titles except those with a single quote in them. Other special characters work fine.

A post with the title THE WEATHER: SUNNY will feature a list to all other posts with that title. But a post with the title TODAY\'S WEATHER IS NICE will not find any other posts with that title even though they exist, because it contains a single quote.

I\'ve searched for a solution but haven\'t found one. Can anyone suggest a way around this?

Here\'s the code I\'m using:

global $wpdb;
$itemName = get_the_title( $ID );
$results =$wpdb->get_results("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts where  $wpdb->posts.post_title LIKE \'$itemName\' AND $wpdb->posts.post_status = \'publish\' ORDER BY post_title ASC", OBJECT);

foreach ($results as $result){
$newTitle =$wpdb->get_results("SELECT post_title FROM $wpdb->posts where  $wpdb->posts.ID = $result->ID", OBJECT);
printf ($newTitle->post_title);
}

By the way, I realise that code will only display the title of other pages and not the link. I\'ve removed the \'link\' section as it works fine, so it\'s not necessary here.

EDIT:

This is the updated code based on userabuser\'s suggestion. It\'s currently returning an error "Unexpected \'=\' on line 55", possibly due to my (mis)use of the proper quotation mark syntax.

global $wpdb;
$itemName = get_the_title( $ID );
$results = $wpdb->get_results($wpdb->prepare("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts where $wpdb->posts.post_title LIKE \'%%%s%%\'", $wpdb->esc_like("$itemName") AND $wpdb->posts.post_status = \'publish\' ORDER BY post_title ASC", OBJECT));