htmlentities to escape data in php

[muntago Richard]

Hello, i tried to escape outputed database plain string using htmlenties as below

echo "<font size=4 color=green><option value=$row3[cat_id]>$row3[name]</option></font>";
 

I tried it this way but is not working

echo "<font size=4 color=green><option value=htmlentities($row3[cat_id], ENT_QUOTES,"UTF-8")

 

>htmlentities($row3[name], ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8")

 

</option></font>";

below is entire code

<?php
require('./data6rst.php');

$result = $db->prepare('
            select name,count(newscontent.cat_id) as no,
newscontent.cat_id from newscontent,content_cat where  
newscontent.cat_id=content_cat.cat_id group by newscontent.cat_id  order by name DESC limit 100
        ');
        $result->execute(array());

echo "<table width='10%' border='0' cellspacing='1' cellpadding='0'>";
$i=0;
$j=3;// number of columns in the table
    
                 while ($nt = $result->fetch())
                 {
                    $i=$i+1;


echo "<td><a href=newscat.php?cat_id=$nt[cat_id]>$nt[name]</a>($nt[no])</td>";
if($i >= 3 ){$i=0; // start a new rows
echo "</tr><tr>";}
}
echo "</table>";
echo "<hr>"; 
?>

please can someone help me to fix this htmlentities issues and check also if this code is sql vulnerable since the query is passed directly to database