apostrophe causing error with row duplication of table items already run through mysqli_real_escape_string & trim

Question

I've been successful with duplicating joined tables. Yay!

Now, after a number of tests, I've found that single apostrophe (escaped items) aren't being accepted. When originally creating new tables rows in the form, everything was run through the following:

$unit_id = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, trim($_POST['ajax_unit_id']));

Now, as I am duplicating these rows to create new records, I don't seem to know where/how to escape_string again in order to allow for single apostrophes again, such as a title called Don's Supah-Dupah App.

Duplication php:

  $sql1 = "CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE   tmp
            SELECT          *
            FROM                ".ID_TABLE."
            WHERE           `unit_id` = " . $id . "";
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,$sql1) or die(mysqli_error($dbc));

  $sql2 = "ALTER TABLE      tmp 
            DROP COLUMN     `unit_id`";
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,$sql2) or die(mysqli_error($dbc));


  $sql3 = "UPDATE           tmp 
            SET                 `title` = '" . $titleStamp . "'";

  # ************************************************************ #
  # ****** This is where I believe the issue is occurring ****** #
  # ************************************************************ #


  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,$sql3) or die(mysqli_error($dbc));    
  $sql4 = "INSERT INTO      ".ID_TABLE." 
            SELECT          0,tmp.* 
            FROM                tmp";
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,$sql4) or die(mysqli_error($dbc));    

  $unit_id1 = $dbc->insert_id;  //mysqli_insert_id($dbc);   // Store new unit_id as var

  $sql5 = "DROP TABLE       tmp;";
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,$sql5) or die(mysqli_error($dbc));

Answer 1

After combing through the coding again, I found that the error actually had nothing to do with the duplication...sort of.

Note: I am providing this answer in case it helps someone out there to step back, look at there own issue from 5000m meters...instead of from 5 inches. Hopefully this helps someone to pull themselves out of the rabbit hole to get a better perspective.

Earlier before the duplication, I'd set up a variable $title that was generated by an initial sql select

$row = mysqli_fetch_array($rdata);
$title = $row['title'];

...then concatenate the title and a datetimestamp.

date_default_timezone_set(DEFAULT_TZ);              // Default timezone set as Australia/Melbourne
$timestamp  = date('Y/m/d h:i:s:a');
$titleStamp = $title." COPY ".$timestamp;

This $title variable is where the issue was occurring. The new string had to be escaped before the content could be inserted back into the new row.

$title      = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, trim($row['title']));

Voila!