parse_str

Hi! I have a small "database" which is a text files with rows like this: name=name_a&description=description_a name=name_b&description=description_b ... In a php page I read the file line by line, I split it using parse_str() and I display the resulting variables, $name and $description. The problem is if a description contains '+' sign, it is converted to spaces. I tried using + instead of '+' signs but with no result. I also tried using split() function but agains, I get spaces for every '+' sign. So, how could I split a string that contains '+' signs and preserve this signs after split? TIA, Radu