I have a string sent to php and I need to turn it into a array. In most cases there is no problem becuase the string is delimited by commas in the correct plac3es. BUT occasionally there is a comma between two digits that I need to ignore. I have tried preg\_split with look behind and look forward but I always lose one of the final or beginning letters of a string. 

I have been struggling with this for days. I can't use explode, or the array contains sub-strings bropken at the 1,2 commas.

For example:

```
bears, tigers, lions, sword-1,2-fish, penguins

```

I need the php to ignore the comma in sword-1,2-fish and return:

```
[0] ==> bears
[1] ==> tigers
[2] ==> lions
[3] ==> sword-1,2-fish
[4] ==> penguins

```

Anyone help, please?