note 71528 rejected from function.preg-replace by nlopess

Note Submitter: fatherstorm at fatherstorm dot com ---- Call me lost. I'm trying to parse input text sort of like BBCode, but I need to hand off the results of my match to a function to return it correctly for output. Problem is, as far as I can tell, my matches come back only in variables that will not work outside of the PREG function? $str= preg_replace ('/\[[wW]impy\](.*?)\[\/[wW]impy\]/is', makeWimpyPlayer($1), $str); This won't work because $1 is not a valid variable name as far as PHP is concerned, but perfectly valid within the framework of the PREG_REPLACE function itself?..