Building and array in flash from external text/php file

Hi all ,
Any Help in regards will be highly appreciated .
Question :
How to load data from and external text/php file that has variables in the format as given below into Flash ? so that it can be used in the flash as a value for some funcions ?

Variable format in txt/php file :

&XYZ_0=MAIN HEADING&

&ABC=another Value, these are subheadings of above heading&
&DEF=another Value,this is also subheading&

In above example , How to get the total number of variables ? i.e the total count of images ? or variables ?
In XYZ heading , how to get the “0” in flash ?

How to build an array of the above values ?

Please pardon the questions if they sound immature …