I knew I shouldnt have abreviated the string. here is the string sorry I kinda flubbed on the last string "Location||||||||Campus~\\\\\\\\\\n-----\nName||||||||Bob Williams~\\\\\\\\\\n-----\nAddress||||||||123 Main St~\\\\\\\\\\n-----\n..." the ... is a very long list. how does this change the preg_match "M. Sokolewicz" <tularis@xxxxxxx> wrote: Not sure what you want exactly, but here's a way using regexps to retrieve the strings seperatly: $string = 'Campus||||||||Bob (Williams)~\\\\\\\\\toms more crap)~\\\\\\\\\blah blah blah)~\\\\\\\\\'; preg_match('#([^|]*)[|]+([^|]*)~[\]+([^\]*)~[\]+([^\]*)~[\]+#Ui', $string, $res); $campus = $res[1]; $bob = $res[2]; $crap = $res[3]; $blah = $res[4]; ?> Now, if you wanted the positions... then something like this would work: $string = 'Campus||||||||Bob (Williams)~\\\\\\\\\toms more crap)~\\\\\\\\\blah blah blah)~\\\\\\\\\'; preg_match('#([^|]*)[|]+([^|]*)~[\]+([^\]*)~[\]+([^\]*)~[\]+#Ui', $string, $res); $campus = strpos($string, $res[1]); $bob = strpos($string, $res[2]); $crap = strpos($string, $res[3]); $blah = strpos($string, $res[4]); ?> Dan McCullough wrote: > Hey everyone > > Having a bit of trouble with something. > > I have a string which has known patterns. > > $string"Campus||||||||Bob (Williams)~\\\\\\\\\toms more crap)~\\\\\\\\\blah blah blah)~\\\\\\\\\"; > > What I am looking for is > > Location which is Campus > Location Name which is Bob (Williams) > > Help? > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today! -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -------------------------------------------------------- "Theres no such thing as a problem unless the servers are on fire!" --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.