Setting counter in variable name within foreach loop

Is this possible? I've been messing with this for about an hour now, searching on google for about half hour. Here is what I want to do: foreach ($array as $key => $value) { $value = explode("|", $value); $counter = 0; if ($value[7] == "Yes") { $counter++; $date_$counter = $value[1]; <-- this is line 33 $dest_$counter = $value[3]; $dep_$counter = $value[4]; } } Then later, I would like to do: for ($i = 0; $i < $counter; $i++) { echo "$date_$i, $dest_$i, $dep_$i<br>\n"; } But, I get an error: Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /var/www/secure/travelrequest/travel7.php on line 33 Is there a way I can do this? Thanks, Jake McHenry Nittany Travel MIS Coordinator http://www.nittanytravel.com