FAQ: replace first instance (couldn't find in archive)

I've seen this discussed before, but no solution seems to have ever been suggested. I'd like to replace the first instance of a substring in a string. So if we were to replace the first 'the' with 'a' in the sentance "Then the big bear ate the little cat in the north of the woods." we would have: "Then a big bear ate the little cat in the north of the woods." I'm on PHP Version 4.3.11, but I can't seem to do anything useful with the preg_replace() limit parameter, which is supposed to be on php>=4.0.1 Does anybody have an example of working code that does this? I've never asked for code before, but this time I think that I already DO know what functions I need, I just can't seem to make it connect.... Side note, in google I couldn't find anything for php that would do what I want, but I found several perl archives that have a solution. If need be, I can paste that perl code. Maybe someone will be able to translate it into php. Thanks! Dotan http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/274/jamiroquai.php Jamiroquai Song Lyrics