diff --git a/system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php b/system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php
index 99ed70a..b018850 100644
--- a/system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php
+++ b/system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 $lang['numeric']			= "The %s field must contain only numbers.";
 $lang['is_numeric']			= "The %s field must contain only numeric characters.";
 $lang['integer']			= "The %s field must contain an integer.";
+$lang['regex_match']		= "The %s field is not in the correct format.";
 $lang['matches']			= "The %s field does not match the %s field.";
 $lang['is_natural']			= "The %s field must contain only positive numbers.";
 $lang['is_natural_no_zero']	= "The %s field must contain a number greater than zero.";
diff --git a/system/libraries/Form_validation.php b/system/libraries/Form_validation.php
index bf36890..38f50fa 100644
--- a/system/libraries/Form_validation.php
+++ b/system/libraries/Form_validation.php
@@ -339,7 +339,13 @@
 				}
 			}
 
-			$this->_execute($row, explode('|', $row['rules']), $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata']);
+			preg_match_all('/([a-zA-Z_-]*(\[.*\])?)\|?/i', $row['rules'], $matches);
+
+			$rules = $matches[1];
+			array_pop($rules);
+			unset($matches);
+
+			$this->_execute($row, $rules, $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata']);
 		}
 
 		// Did we end up with any errors?
@@ -576,7 +582,7 @@
 			// Strip the parameter (if exists) from the rule
 			// Rules can contain a parameter: max_length[5]
 			$param = FALSE;
-			if (preg_match("/(.*?)\[(.*?)\]/", $rule, $match))
+			if (preg_match("/(.*?)\[(.*)\]/", $rule, $match))
 			{
 				$rule	= $match[1];
 				$param	= $match[2];
@@ -889,6 +895,26 @@
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 	/**
+	 * Performs a Regular Expression match test.
+	 *
+	 * @access	public
+	 * @param	string
+	 * @param	regex
+	 * @return	bool
+	 */
+	function regex_match($str, $regex)
+	{
+		if ( ! preg_match($regex, $str))
+		{
+			return FALSE;
+		}
+
+		return  TRUE;
+	}
+
+	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+	/**
 	 * Match one field to another
 	 *
 	 * @access	public