erm? what are these?

mistuh griddlez

I'd like to know what these are called or whatever...

example?

rohan2kool

These are known as 'Regular Expressions' and are used for text parsing. Basically, the 'this' you said is like a structure of a string, but not a specific string. A string having a similar text can be parsed using the regex. I know this is confusing.. but the concept of regex is somewhat like that.

Refer:

RegEx in PHP/tutorial: http://www.regular-expressions.info/php.html
RegEx in PHP/tutorial: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/regular-expressions-php
RegEx cheatsheet: http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/cheat-sheets/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet/
RegEx megasite: http://www.regular-expressions.info

mistuh griddlez

Thanks! Seriously...those links you provided are just what I needed... Very Happy