It was because the rest of my code was geared towards sending the variable to a mysql database and i forgot to use single quotes when assigning this variable to the database variable.

eg:

UPDATE users SET USER_NAME=’$inputted_name’ …

Unknown column ‘David’ in ‘field list’

The above error is when using this code:
$inputted_name=$_POST["fieldname"];

Yet if i simply echo the variable like so, it does display the variable:
echo $_POST["fieldname"];

output:
David

So why wont it let me save the imported variable as a variable, yet it lets me echo it? This is being developed for a facebook application. Just wondering if that may be why?

Many thanks!