Input sanitization typically handles this as a string that only allows characters supported by the data type specified by the table field in question. A permissive strategy might scrub the string of unexpected characters. A strict one might throw an error. The point, however, is to prevent the evaluation of inputs as anything other than their intended type, whether or not reserved characters are present.
Are there character escapes for SQL, to protect against stuff like that?
Yes but it’s a dangerous process. You should use paramatrized queries instead.
Use parameters, that way data and queries are separate.
Input sanitization typically handles this as a string that only allows characters supported by the data type specified by the table field in question. A permissive strategy might scrub the string of unexpected characters. A strict one might throw an error. The point, however, is to prevent the evaluation of inputs as anything other than their intended type, whether or not reserved characters are present.