inserting image into text code trouble

Anon

I want to insert an image tag into a body of content after 3 's occur

eg I have a variable called $content which has about 6 paragraphs and the paragraph separator is .

here is the code im using

if($master_img3){
$content2=explode(" ",$content);
$content3="";
for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++){
$content3.=" $content2[$i]";
}
$image_code="<img src=\"/images/articles/$master_img3\" align=\"left\">";
$content4=$content3;
$content4.=$image_code;
if($debug==1){echo"image_code:$image_code";}
preg_replace("$content3","$content4","$content");
}

im getting an error for the preg_replace line (Unknown modifier '<' in line XX)

don't know what I'm doing wrong, i thought i was following the manual to the letter.......

vfwood

i believe your content3 line should read

$content3.=" " . $content2[$i];

Anon

yes, I made that change but I still get

Warning: Unknown modifier '<' in /usr/local/etc/httpd/vhosts/vibewire/articles.php4 on line 45 (which is the preg_replace line)

is there some problem with '<' inside a php
variable?

ill try escaping it or something.

mike