data seperated by commas

[penguinboy]

I have data from database seperated by commas

the format:
(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename),(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename),(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename)

I want to be able to pull out
(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename)

or possibly put a /n in
(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename)/n
(lastname),,(firstname),(middlename)/n

example:
SMITH,,JOHN,DAYTON,CUMMINGS,,MIKE,ALLEN,CLANTON,,HOMER,WILL,WILSON,,MORGAN,JOE

I just don't know how to go about doing this.

Thanks for any help
--pb

[buck2bcr]

You can use the explode function to seperate out the things between the commas. This will give you an array you can use.

// just a line of your test data
$line = "SMITH,,JOHN,DAYTON,CUMMINGS,,MIKE,ALLEN,CLANTON,,HOMER,WILL,WILSON,,MORGAN,JOE"; 

// use explode to put data in an array
$explode_array =  explode(",",$line);

// then you can use the array to get to the data
// Just a test echo to see 
echo "$explode_array[0]";

HTH

Buck