Preg Replace Problem

[Tom743 0]

If i have a word like c.........a......t (with the dots in) and i wanted to replace it with cat how would i do it. If i use

<?php$patterns = "/c(*)a(*)t/";$replace = "cat";echo preg_replace($patterns, $replace, 'c.....a.........t');[/color][color="#000000"]?>

then when i type something like "come and look at this" is also filtered. Is there any way just to filter cat with dots in?

[truefusion 3]

If all you want to do is eliminate dots found specifically inbetween the letters "c", "a" and "t", then the following should work:

$patterns = "/c\.{2,}a\.{2,}t/";$replace = "cat";echo preg_replace($patterns, $replace, 'c.....a.........t');

Anything else would require a more complex pattern.