Form element names starting with the "+" character????

I have a simple method of creating easy form processing.... I thought.... I came up with the idea (I am not claiming to be the first) to have form elements I want to update via MySQL starting with either "-" or "+". Example: +name=DAN +email=dan@wavefront.ca -notes= id=1 The first 2 are required and will be updated, the 3rd is optional and will be updated and the 4th (id) is simply passed as form data. The idea here is that I parse the $_POST variable to auto create a "UPDATE table SET name = 'Dan', email = 'dan@wavefront.ca' WHERE = 1" string for MySQL. The issue is that if I use the "+" to indicate a required field for error trapping my $_POST array ends up like this: +namD=AN +emaild=an@wavefront.ca -notes= id=1 Either this is a PHP / HTTP bug or I am up against some strange post naming restriction. I searched the web, the PHP site (includeing the bugs) and could not spot an obvious reference. Any ideas out there? Dan