diff --git a/dbapi.cabal b/dbapi.cabal
index fc856f974..ca05e73ce 100644
--- a/dbapi.cabal
+++ b/dbapi.cabal
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ executable dbapi
                      , containers, unordered-containers
                      , optparse-applicative >= 0.9.1 && < 0.10
                      , regex-base, regex-tdfa
+                     , regex-tdfa-text
                      , Ranged-sets
                      , transformers
                      , bcrypt, base64-string
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ Test-Suite spec
   ghc-options:         -Wall -W -Werror
   Main-Is:             Main.hs
   Other-Modules:       Dbapi, Spec, SpecHelper
-  Build-Depends:       base, hspec2
+  Build-Depends:       base, hspec2, QuickCheck
                      , hspec-wai >= 0.5.0, hspec-wai-json
                      , HDBC, HDBC-postgresql
                      , warp, wai >= 3.0.1 && < 3.0.2
@@ -60,6 +61,7 @@ Test-Suite spec
                      , regex-base
                      , string-conversions
                      , http-media, regex-tdfa
+                     , regex-tdfa-text
                      , Ranged-sets
                      , transformers
                      , bcrypt
diff --git a/src/PgQuery.hs b/src/PgQuery.hs
index 19fa3cf06..640424775 100644
--- a/src/PgQuery.hs
+++ b/src/PgQuery.hs
@@ -11,18 +11,23 @@ module PgQuery (
 , setRole
 , resetRole
 , checkPass
+, pgFormatIdentifier
+, pgFormatLiteral
 , RangedResult(..)
 , LoginAttempt(..)
 , DbRole
 ) where
 
-import Data.Text (Text, splitOn, intercalate)
+import Data.Text (Text, splitOn, intercalate, replace, takeWhile)
 import Data.String.Conversions (cs)
 import Data.Functor ( (<$>) )
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe, mapMaybe)
 import Data.Monoid ((<>), mconcat)
 import qualified Data.Map as M
 
+import Text.Regex.TDFA ((=~))
+import Text.Regex.TDFA.Text ()
+
 import Control.Monad (join)
 
 import qualified RangeQuery as R
@@ -238,6 +243,27 @@ populateSql conn sql = do
     ph :: [a] -> Text
     ph = intercalate ", " . map (const "?::varchar")
 
+pgFormatIdentifier :: Text -> Text
+pgFormatIdentifier x =
+  let escaped = replace "\"" "\"\"" (trimNullChars x) in
+  if escaped =~ danger
+    then "\"" <> escaped <> "\""
+    else escaped
+
+  where danger = "^$|^[^a-z_]|[^a-z_0-9]" :: Text
+
+pgFormatLiteral :: Text -> Text
+pgFormatLiteral x =
+  let trimmed = trimNullChars x
+      escaped = "'" <> replace "'" "''" trimmed <> "'"
+      slashed = replace "\\" "\\\\" escaped in
+  if escaped =~ ("\\\\" :: Text)
+    then "E" <> slashed
+    else slashed
+
+trimNullChars :: Text -> Text
+trimNullChars = Data.Text.takeWhile (/= '\x0')
+
 setRole :: Connection -> DbRole -> IO ()
 setRole conn role = runRaw conn $ "set role " <> cs role
 
diff --git a/test/Unit/PgQuerySpec.hs b/test/Unit/PgQuerySpec.hs
index 9efa6bfae..8c44c276f 100644
--- a/test/Unit/PgQuerySpec.hs
+++ b/test/Unit/PgQuerySpec.hs
@@ -3,11 +3,14 @@
 module Unit.PgQuerySpec where
 
 import Test.Hspec
+import Test.QuickCheck
+import Test.QuickCheck.Monadic
 
 import Database.HDBC (IConnection, SqlValue, toSql, prepare,
   quickQuery, fromSql, execute, seState, fetchAllRowsAL)
 
-import PgQuery (LoginAttempt(..), insert, addUser, signInRole, checkPass)
+import PgQuery (LoginAttempt(..), insert, addUser, signInRole, checkPass
+              , pgFormatIdentifier, pgFormatLiteral)
 import Types (SqlRow(SqlRow))
 import TestTypes (fromList, incStr, incNullableStr, incInsert, incId)
 import Data.Map (toList)
@@ -83,3 +86,17 @@ spec = around dbWithSchema $ do
     it "returns nothing with bad creds" $ \conn -> do
       signInRole "not-a-user" pass conn `shouldReturn` LoginFailed
       signInRole user (pass <> "crap") conn `shouldReturn` LoginFailed
+
+  describe "pgFormatIdentifier" $
+    it "Does what format %I would do" $ \conn ->
+      property $ monadicIO $ do
+        fuzz <- pick arbitrary
+        [[row]] <- run $ quickALQuery conn "select format('%I', ? :: varchar)" [toSql (fuzz :: String)]
+        assert $ fromSql (snd row) == pgFormatIdentifier (cs fuzz)
+
+  describe "pgFormatLiteral" $
+    it "Does what format %L would do" $ \conn ->
+      property $ monadicIO $ do
+        fuzz <- pick arbitrary
+        [[row]] <- run $ quickALQuery conn "select format('%L', ? :: varchar)" [toSql (fuzz :: String)]
+        assert $ fromSql (snd row) == pgFormatLiteral (cs fuzz)