Suppose you want to insert the name O'Donnell. You might be tempted to enter it in psql as 'O'Donnell', but this approach will not work. The presence of a single quote inside a single-quoted string generates a parser error. One way to place a single quote inside a single-quoted string is to use two quotes together--for example, 'O''Donnell'.9.2 Two single quotes inside a single-quoted string causes one single quote to be generated. Another option is to use a backslash--for example, 'O\'Donnell'. The backslash escapes the single quote character.