@ is nothing but a start and end symbol.. notice it at begining and end. i at end means case insensitive generally all books and tutorials show examples with a slash.. but anything that is not a symbol in regex too can work like pipe, hash etc etc. -- GR ----- Original Message ---- From: manika bhatia <manika_bhatia@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: php-objects@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, 10 June, 2008 3:53:00 PM Subject: help in regular expression can anyone explain this regular expression '@^(?:http:/ /)?([^/]+ )@i what is the meaning of @ thanks ------------ --------- --------- --- Check out the all-new face of Yahoo! India. Click here. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]