CodeIgniter's Active Record methods automatically escape queries for you, to prevent sql injection.
$this->db->select('*')->from('tablename')->where('var', $val1);
$this->db->get();
or
$this->db->insert('tablename', array('var1'=>$val1, 'var2'=>$val2));
If you don't want to use Active Records, you can use query bindings to prevent against injection.
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE var = ?';
$this->db->query($sql, array($val1));
Or for inserting you can use the insert_string() method.
$sql = $this->db->insert_string('tablename', array('var1'=>$val1, 'var2'=>$val2));
$this->db->query($sql);
There is also the escape() method if you prefer to run your own queries.
$val1 = $this->db->escape($val1);
$this->db->query("SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE var=$val1");