MySQLi, prepared statements and associative arrays
<p>Im switching from good ol' <code>MySQL</code> to <code>MySQLi</code> (late bloomer, I know) and have chosen <code>MySQLi</code> over <code>PDO</code>.</p>

<p>Firstly, I like associative arrays <code>(eg: $db_data['whatever_field'])</code>, so I cannot use prepared statements because that doesnt return associative arrays (by default / without workarounds).</p>

<p>So I have to manually prepare my <code>MySQLi</code> statements myself, eg:</p>

<pre><code>'SELECT * FROM admin_users WHERE email='. $mysqli-&gt;real_escape_string($_COOKIE['admin']['email']) .' AND password='. $mysqli-&gt;real_escape_string($_COOKIE['admin']['password']);
</code></pre>

<p>As you can imagine, this could get tiresome! Is there a short <code>$mysqli-&gt;real_escape_string()</code> or what do you guys do?</p>
