recognizing patterns

[tito]

In a mysql database I've got a bunch of real usernames and another bunch that are random numbers. The random numbers have all in common the '-' (minus sign) in front of them, like -A8XT56897. I get the real ones, but I need to call the random numbers the same, eg "random".

I've got:
<?php

$c=0;
$username="";
if (username ="-whatever")
$username="random";

Can someone help me with the proper way to extract those
-random_numbers?
thanks.

[bubblenut]

$conn=mysql_connect($host,$username,$password)
mysql_select_db($db);
$query="UPDATE users SET username='random' WHERE username REGEXP '^-'";
mysql_query($query,$conn) or die("Query: $sql\n".mysql_error());

HTH
Bubble