Validation, multiple instances of %s?

[eluser]modano[/eluser]
Thanks for your replies guys, but thats not gonna do it either.
What im trying to do is to pass the name of the field at the very beginning of the error message, for example:
"username|The username field is required."
Why? Because Im using jquery to make an ajax call for the validation, and i want it to spit out the error message, and also highlight the textbox or object that was wrong. But to do that I must know the html tag ID of the cell, span, div or what, that the object in question is in.
So the first I would do is split the returned string by the pipe |, and use the first part to identify the html area to highlight, and then the second part to print out as a regular error message.

I'd hate to hard code it into each message, much rather use a varaible such as %s....


Also, Im using CI 1.6.3