Kim, May the hack-o-rama commence: <?php $str = "[layer1][layer2][layer3][layer4]"; $parts = explode("][", substr($str, 1, -1)); $text = ""; foreach ($parts as $part) { $text .= 'a:1:{s:' . strlen($part) . ':"' . $part . '";'; } $text .= 'b:1;' . str_repeat('}', count($parts)); print_r(unserialize($text)); ?> It works, but I'm not proud. :P David -- David Grant http://www.grant.org.uk/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php