[thelist] text delimiter

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi

I want to send a handful of free text fields in one big text variable to
another program. So I need a delimiter. ;'s no good because it might
easily be used in the text.

Do I need to scan for my chosen delimiter character and remove it (which
obviously changes the text) or is there an accepted ASCII character that
programmers use for delimiting text and that no-one can input at the
keyboard (OK, I know about ALT+nnn, but besides that)?

I'm using PHP.

Favourite delimiter anyone?

Cheers
J