Escaping special characters for use with eregi

[god0fgod]

eregi($key1, $new_test)

I want to escape special character used with eregi in the $key1 variable. I tried using str_replace but it didn't work. How can I do this?

Thanks.

[laserlight]

Do not use eregi(). Use [man]preg_match/man with [man]preg_quote/man.