[Lionel]

That's easy to say :speechless:
I got somewhere the hard way

PHP Code:

 $string = $f[category];
$string2 = ereg_replace('^.[#]', '', $string);
$string3 = ereg_replace('[#].[:].[#]', ',', $string2);
$string4 = ereg_replace('[#].','', $string3);
$array = array($string4); 


before

PHP Code:

3#35#0:2#15#0:7#93#0:7#101#0:1#1#0:1#3#0:5#71#0:6#86#0:4#57#0 


after

PHP Code:

35,15,93,101,1,3,71,86,57 


now I have to find a way to put quotes around the values

then I'll struggle to extract each one of them individually from array

now that my $string5 looks like this

PHP Code:

"35" , "15" , "93" , "101" , "1" , "3" , "71" , "86" , "57" 


if I do

PHP Code:

$array = ("35" , "15" , "93" , "101" , "1" , "3" , "71" , "86" , "57" );
echo count($array); 


the count correctly returns 9

but if I do

PHP Code:

$array = array($string5);
echo count($array); 


I get only one :disappointed: