This works in phpmyadmin but not in php

I have a script that adds a user to mysql and makes them a database. This is the php code:

PHP:

                $user = mysql_escape_string($_POST['user']);
                $pass = mysql_escape_string($_POST['user']);
                //add the mess
                $sql = 'CREATE USER \'free_'.$user.'\'@\'localhost\' IDENTIFIED BY \''.$pass.'\';'
                    . ' GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO \'free_'.$user.'\'@\'localhost\' IDENTIFIED BY \''.$pass.'\' ;'
                    . ' CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `free_'.$user.'`;'
                    . ' GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `free_'.$user.'`.* TO \'free_'.$user.'\'@\'localhost\';'; 
                mysql_query($sql) or die("<pre>".mysql_error()."<br />".$sql);


and when I run the code, I get this error:

Code:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ';# MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows). GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'f' at line 1
CREATE USER 'free_testing'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'testing';
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'free_testing'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'testing' ;CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `free_testing`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `free_testing`.* TO 'free_testing'@'localhost';

now if I take the sql code from above, which is this:

Code:

CREATE USER 'free_testing'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'testing';
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'free_testing'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'testing' ;CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `free_testing`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `free_testing`.* TO 'free_testing'@'localhost';

and run it in phpmyadmin it works. This is all on the same server. Whats up?

 

I'd use double quotes for SQL statements:

Code:

$sql = "CREATE USER 'free_".$user."'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '".$pass."';"
       . " GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'free_".$user."'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '".$pass."' ;"
       . " CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `free_".$user."`;"
       . " GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `free_".$user."`.* TO 'free_".$user."'@'localhost';";