regular Expression problem

Hi everybody ! I do have a problem using reg. expression in php(3 and 4). As fas as I understood, I can escape *every* special character but here is the point. Well, it seems, that I cant escape the hyphen. Have a look at that little code snippet: <? $name = "a-.b"; $ret = ereg("^[a-z\.\-]*$",$name); // This returns true (1) .... echo "Ret1 :".$ret."<br>"; $ret = ereg("^[a-z\-\.]*$",$name); // ... whereas this returns *FALSE* !! echo "Ret2 :".$ret."<br>"; $ret = ereg("^[a-z\.-]*$",$name); // This returns true (1) .... echo "Ret1 :".$ret."<br>"; $ret = ereg("^[a-z-\.]*$",$name); // ... whereas this returns a Warning: REG_ERANGE in /export/home/ried/weltbild/info.php on line blabla ... echo "Ret2 :".$ret."<br>"; ?> The problem is the hyphen. It is only recognized(?), when I put it at the end of the pattern. So I can't escape the hyphen? And I do have to put the hyphen at the end of the pattern to make it recognized? Is that correct ??? Thanks anyway Hubert ________________________________ Publica Data-Service GmbH Steinerne Furt 72 86167 Augsburg mailto:Hubert.Ried@publica.de