a DOT or a BLANK SPACE

Hi. We HAVE TO use names like Num. or Home Address in for our input tags in the forms. That is: <input type="text" name="Num."> <input type="text" name="Home Address"> When I receive the info in my PHP file, after the form has been posted, the variable name I get is: 'Num '. So, the dots are being replaced for a blank space. I can't take for granted that any blank space is a dot since my inputs names are using them. How can I identify between this two variable names? Thanks for your help! Regards, Jaime