Regular Expressions? Help!

I am trying to do a match for an expression and it to a variable from the output of a command: <?php $lines = file ($file); while (list ($line_num, $line) = each ($lines)) { $trimline = trim ($line); $output = shell_exec ("$prog $cmdline $trimline &"); } ?> How can look through $output to set the information returned as different variables the output would look like: variable1:"some information" variable2:"some information" I want to set each variable to a string and write it to a file. Thank You for you help. Roy ************************** PLEASE NOTE ************************** This E-Mail/telefax message and any documents accompanying this transmission may contain privileged and/or confidential information and is intended solely for the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended addressee/recipient, you are hereby notified that any use of, disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance on the contents of this E-Mail/telefax information is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action against you. Please reply to the sender advising of the error in transmission and immediately delete/destroy the message and any accompanying documents. Thank you.