hello. i have no idea what this would be called or if it's even possible with one line of a regex so that's why i'm coming to the list. everyone can identify words like: viagra v1agra v1@gr@ vi@gra etc. but how do you identify those same words when random punctuation is thrown in? vi.agra v1a;gr.a etc. is it possible for a regular expression to do something like the following: 1. first identify the following string: /v[!1i\|][a@]gr[a@]/ 2. then check to see if there are any of the following characters in there somewhere: /[\.;:\/]/ i guess you *could* do something like the following: /v[\.;:\/]?[!1i\|][\.;:\/]?[a@][\.;:\/]?g[\.;:\/]?r[\.;:\/]?[a@][\.;:\/] ?/ but that just seems overly complicated... ? any suggestions? thanks, chris. -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list