splitting string

I create a string from other strings: $string = $string1."\n".$string2."\n".$string3."\n".$string4."\n".$string5; and then store it in DB. But, I can't figure out how to split them back? Tried: $string_back = explode('\n', $string); $string_back = explode('<br>', $string); $string_back = explode('<br />', $string); Anu help? Also, is there actially better way to do this then adding \n between strings? (e.g. store form fields name, address, city, state, zip, phone, email as a one string in db and later pull them from DB and split them back?) Thanks for any help! -afan