It's simple : I have a string and a regular expression. I only want to find the FIRST sub-string which matches my regular expression (S), then to extract the sub-string before S and the sub-string after S.

Off the top of my head, it sounds like you want: (.+)(200\d)(.*) -- Dan Ellis, Software Engineer, Sophos Anti-Virus Email: dan.ellis@sophos.com, DDI: 01235 540204 Real Business/CBI Growing Business Awards: Company of the Year Tel: 01235 559933, Web: http://www.sophos.com/