Dynamically assigning var namesi

Hi all Does anyone know if you can assign a new variable name based on the contents of another variable in PHP? If so whats the syntax to do this? I am parsing a text file that has tens of preset attributes and some of these have hundreds of sub attributes. For example the text file contains flight details, on every flight there can be up to 500 passengers but there are generally only 50 so i dont want to have declare 500 vars when i hardly ever use them. What i am trying to do is count the amount of pasengers present and dynamically create the variables based on this.$surname1,$surname2 etc... Im not sure whether this is a sane way to approach this problem or not. Any advice or pointing to relevant documentation about either syntax for this or ways of tackling this sort of problem (im sure it must be a regular occurance in the coding world??) would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance for any help or advice. Cheers Bob --------------------------------- All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine