problem with explode

[thessoro]

i have the following code

$var="first field%second field%third field%fourth field";
$fields=explode ("%",$var);

is there any way to 'escape' the "%" character so is not taken as a separator? i mean, any way to do something like this:

$var="first field%'a field with the % character'%third field";

thanks;

[laserlight]

Well, one possible solution would be to use say, % or something to store the percent sign i.e. with htmlspecialchars()

Another might be to use %% or some less likely to be used sequence as the separator.