Why do strings need to be enclosed in single quotes in SQL queries when updating text fields?

Strings need to be enclosed in single quotes in SQL queries to differentiate them from SQL keywords or column names. This is necessary to prevent syntax errors and ensure that the database interprets the value as a string literal. To fix this issue, simply enclose the string value in single quotes within the SQL query.

// Example SQL query with string value enclosed in single quotes
$sql = "UPDATE table_name SET column_name = 'new_value' WHERE condition";