Basic insert into SQL - php

Question

I know this is really simple i haven't touched PHP and SQL in a few years.
This works
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO sonyCES2013.registration (id,
firstName, lastName, eMail, telephone, outlet, comfirm,
preferTime, date) VALUES (NULL,Cat, 'Catherine',
'Cat#gmail.com', '123-456-4561', 'Some Text', 'Yes', '4:00pm'
,'1/09/14')");
this doesn't work
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO sonyCES2013.registration (id,
firstName, lastName, eMail, telephone, outlet, comfirm,
preferTime, date) VALUES
(NULL,{$fName},{$lName},{$eMail},{$telephone},{$outlet},{$comfirmation},{
$preferTime},{$day})");
help and yes i did check that the variables aren't empty and i did try without the `` between each {}

Answer 1

You need to add ' ' to the variables to make the interpeter able to understand what you are trying to do ( in this case passing some php variable as parameters)
Use this and see if it works:
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO sonyCES2013.registration (id, firstName, lastName,
eMail, telephone, outlet, comfirm, preferTime, date) VALUES
(NULL,'$fName','$lName','$eMail','$telephone','$outlet',
'$comfirmation','$preferTime','$day')");

Answer 2

It won't work that way because the resulting SQL looks something like this:
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO sonyCES2013.registration (id, firstName, lastName, eMail, telephone, outlet, comfirm, preferTime, date) VALUES (NULL,Cat, Catherine, Cat#gmail.com, 123-456-4561, Some Text, Yes, 4:00pm ,1/09/14)");
Note the lack of single quotes around the strings, which make the SQL invalid.