formatting a numeric string

I have the following code -- $phone_number = "8005551212"; $phone_array = explode("", $phone_number); $phone_number = sprintf("(%s%s%s) %s%s%s-%s%s%s%s", $phone_array[0], $phone_array[1], $phone_array[2], $phone_array[3], $phone_array[4], $phone_array[5], $phone_array[6], $phone_array[7], $phone_array[8]); Is this really the best way to achieve $phone_number = "(800) 555-1212" ? Or am I taking the long way around, and there's a function that can do this better? Thanks, Erik ---- Erik Price Web Developer Temp Media Lab, H.H. Brown pricee@hhbrown.com