title: mysql database has $ and / signs - can't get them inside of my query
body: <p>New to databases, and need some help understanding how to retrieve items from a database - I have text items in a database with php like special symbols - and they are not coming through correctly</p>
  
  <pre><code>   $dealquery="SELECT * FROM deal WHERE UUID = '$UUID'";
      $dealresult=mysql_query($dealquery);
      if (!$dealresult) {    echo 'Could not run dealresult query: ' . mysql_error();    exit;}
      $dealrow = mysql_fetch_array($dealresult, MYSQL_ASSOC)) 
      var_dump($dealrow);
      $dealpromo = $dealrow['promotext'];
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the promotext is - $15 off w/ purchase</p>
  
  <p>the var_dump shows "purchase"
  as does my $dealpromo</p>
  
  <p>Here is some output from another database entry that is not working</p>
  
  <p>code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  var_dump($dealrow['promotext']);echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo $dealrow['promotext'];echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  htmlentities($dealrow['promotext']);echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo urlencode($dealrow['promotext']);echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  var_dump('$10 off $20 Purchase');
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
                  echo "&lt;br/&gt;";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>result:</p>
  
  <p>string(21) " off Purchase " 
  off Purchase </p>
  
  <p>%2410+off+%2420+Purchase+
  string(20) " off Purchase" </p>
  
  <p>off Purchase </p>