Returning a string from a function

Could somebody tell me way this function will not work I know the script inside the function works because I have tested it but when I put it in a function all I get back when I call it is a 1 function &getpath($search) { Global $search,$path; $a = /bin/ls -al /home/sites/ | awk {'print $9" "$10" "$11" "'} | grep $search; $items = explode ("www.", $a); For($i = 0; $i< (count($items)/1); $i +=1){ $path=strstr(($items[$i]), '/'); return $path; } } $path=&getpath($search); Best regards, Richard mailto:rkurth@pacifier.com