Reformatting phone number string from user input

Hi :) I've been working on reformatting a phone number string from user input via a form field. Ultimately, my goal is to format all phone numbers in the same way regardless of whether a user inputs '(123) 456-7890', '123-456-7890', '123.456.7890', etc. before I insert them into a db. I know I've got a ways to go, but so far, after trying a few things I found in the manual, I'm going in this direction... $patterns[0] = "/\(/"; $patterns[1] = "/\)/"; $patterns[2] = "/-/"; $replacements[0] = ""; $replacements[1] = ""; $replacements[2] = " "; $phone = preg_replace($patterns, $replacements, $phone); This will change '(123) 456-7890' to '123 456 7890' which is what I am after. I'm just wondering if there is a better or more elegant way to handle this before I start trying to cover all the bases? Note: I found a variety of examples in the mailing list archives, but none of them seem to use the method above. Hmmm, does that mean I'm taking the long way around ;) I know I could just copy some examples from there, but I'm trying to use this as a learning opportunity and there seems to be more than one way to skin the cat (no offence to cat lovers ;) TIA for any advice, Verdon