i have a 12 digit code that i want to format as follows xxxx-xxxx-xxxx it is all numbers i tried using substr() to format it in this fassion $code = abcdwxyz8765; $string = array(); $string[] = substr($code,1,4); $string[] = substr($code,5,8); $string[] = substr($code9,12); echo $string[0],'-',$string[1],'-',$string[2]; OUTPUT SHOULD BE : abcd-wxyz-5678 I GET : -wxyz678-5678 Any help? -- PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php