Some time spent to try but now i think it works: <?php echo "<pre>"; $a='datadatadatadata[link1]datadatadata{link2}data[link3]'; // $a='datadata{link1}data[link2]datadatadata{link3}data[link4]'; $pattern='/((\[)|\{)(.+?)(?(2)\]|\})/'; echo $a."\n"; echo $pattern."\n"; preg_match_all($pattern,$a,$matches,PREG_MATCH_ORDER); var_dump($matches); ?> Produces : <pre>datadatadatadata[link1]datadatadata{link2}data[link3] /(\[)|\{(.+?)(?(1)\]|\})/ array(3) { [0]=> array(3) { [0]=> string(1) "[" [1]=> string(7) "{link2}" [2]=> string(1) "[" } [1]=> array(3) { [0]=> string(1) "[" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(1) "[" } [2]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(5) "link2" } } Also works with the commented string. Explanation : Looking for more than one using preg_match_all. Matching for [ or {, [ is in () because at the end we test if we found [ so we look for ] otherwise { is found so we look for matching }. (?(1) true|false) is 1 as a backreference is set so we found [. Hope this will help you. Andrey Hristov IcyGEN Corporation http://www.icygen.com 99% ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ross Nielsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 9:42 PM Subject: [PHP] Regular Expression Problem and PHP 4 (urgent) --- continued > Well my first solution didn't really work the way I needed it too so here > goes again... > > Data returned from server process looks like following... > > Header > datadatadatadata[link]datadatadata{link}data[link] > datadata{link}data[link]datadatadata{link}data[link] > datadatadatadata[link]datadatadata{link}data[link] > Closer > > I need to grep the values between [] and {} to turn them into a links. > (BTW I need to retain the values for use in JS) > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Ross > > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact the list administrators, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]