PHP posting <a href> causes error on insert - php

Question

I am writing a php file that takes values from a form and posts them to a mysql database. One of the table fields is a button link to a video that will play when clicked. It works great if I go into the database and manually add the link. However my PHP insert causes an error. Please have a look at this code:
$fileName = "video_".$id.".html";
$link = "<button class=\"count\">Watch Video</button>";
$con=mysqli_connect("localhost","videomanager","password","my_database");
// Check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno())
{
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
}
$sql="INSERT INTO video_list (date, title, description, link) VALUES('$_POST[date]','".mysqli_real_escape_string($_POST['sermon'])."','".mysqli_real_escape_string($_POST['description'])."','$link' )";
if (!mysqli_query($sql,$con))
{
die('Error: ' . mysqli_error());
}
echo "This video has been successfully added to the video database.";
mysqli_close($con);
If I look at $link by doing something like: echo $link; die(); it produces a page with the button and the code in the button looks good. Is it how I am trying to insert it? Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

you have a lot of errors
<?php
$fileName = "video_".$id.".html";
$link = "<button class=\"count\">Watch Video</button>";
$con = mysqli_connect("localhost","videomanager","password","my_database");
// Check connection
if ( mysqli_connect_errno() )
die('Failed to connect to MySQL: ' . mysqli_connect_error() );
// Check param is set
if( !isset($_POST['date'], $_POST['sermon'], $_POST['description']) )
die('Param Error');
// SQL Request
$sql = sprintf("INSERT INTO video_list (date, title, description, link) VALUES('%s','%s','%s','%s')",
mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $_POST['date']),
mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $_POST['sermon']),
mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $_POST['description']),
mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $link)
);
// SQL execute
$result = mysqli_query($con, $sql) or die('Error: ' . mysqli_error($con));
// Free result
mysqli_free_result($result);
// Close connection
mysqli_close($con);
echo "This video has been successfully added to the Kim Watt videos.";