replacing \n with <br>

Hi, all -- I have a php script which writes comments out to a file in the format field@@comment field@@comment ... and everything has worked delightfully -- until someone put in a newline in one of the items and now we have field@@com ment field@@comment ... and things break. I read the file, line by line, and parse on @@ as my separator, so anything after a newline is lost. I thought I'd just replace that newline with a <br> since that's what the user really wants, but I can't get rid of the \n while I'm at it; through various attempts at directly replacing or using variables or such like preg_replace("/\n/","<br>",$mydatastring) ; preg_replace("/$newline/","$linebreak",$mydatastring) ; I get mixed results of field@@com<br> ment or field@@com <br>ment but in no case have I managed to get field@@com<br>ment which is what I want. Is there a way to turn off the recognition of \n as an end of line and instead operate on the entire $mydatastring? TIA & HAND :-D -- David T-G * It's easier to fight for one's principles (play) davidtg@justpickone.org * than to live up to them. -- fortune cookie (work) davidtgwork@justpickone.org http://www.justpickone.org/davidtg/ Shpx gur Pbzzhavpngvbaf Qrprapl Npg!