Yii: handy functions to use Yii with raw SQL

yii_functions_sql.php

<?php
/**
 * Escapes values
 *
 * @param array $values array of values to escape
 * @return string string ready to be included into SQL statement
 * @throws CException if one of the values isn't a scalar
 */
function escape($values)
{
	$values = (array)$values;
	$escaped = array();
	foreach($values as $value) {
		if(!is_scalar($value)) {
			throw new CException('One of the values passed to values() is not a scalar.');
		}
		$escaped[] = Yii::app()->db->quoteValue($value);
	}
	return implode(', ', $escaped);
}

/**
 * Creates a command. Examples:
 *
 * command('SELECT * FROM post WHERE id IN(%s)', array(1, 2, 3))->queryAll();
 * command('SELECT id FROM post WHERE name = %s', 'Alexander')->queryScalar();
 * command('SELECT * FROM post WHERE id = %d', 101)->queryRow();
 *
 * @param string $sql SQL statement. You can use sprintf tokens here.
 * @param ... any number of additional arguments. These will be properly escaped
 * and used to replace sprintf tokens.
 * @return CDbCommand
 */
function command($sql)
{
	$args = func_get_args();
	array_shift($args);

	if(!empty($args)) {
		foreach($args as &$arg) {
			$arg = escape($arg);
		}
		$sql = call_user_func_array('sprintf', array_merge(array($sql), $args));
	}

	return Yii::app()->db->createCommand($sql);
}