'|||srchlookstate_province|:|' php what does this do

It doesn't "do" anything.  '|||srchlookstate_province|:|' is just a string.  $ret is assigned to that string appended with the return value from the stateOptions() function call.  Something later in your application might assign some significance to that particular string value (like parsing it to build a table), but from the snippet you posted, it's just a string.

$ret .= '|||srchlookstate_province|:|' . stateOptions($countrycode);

The variable would look like this after the call to statOptions:

$ret .=|||srchlookstate_province|:|033;

$ret looks like a variable that keeps getting larger every time it is called

which means it looks like it is intended to be "exploded" on '|' for some data representation.

It appears that each call appends the new information to the string $ret.

with the ||| being Start of new record and the |:| being the code

if this data is collected as its used in a java cascade, menu system, is this code then integrated into a dynamic page bild and then constructed in html and then offered up by the server?

not sure how to show you what is happening i can show you the page that i am working with, but it actually built accross 4-5 pages which includes php, java tpl pages, what i can see i am debuging on my lap top, have a site test up but you can see the effects but not the code.

any ideas on how i can give you more information
can post up the page but its just code
bit lost on which way to go
could use some direction if possible

and also extrtracs data from a mysql data base to bukd the cascading menus

thanks for you help i will be revising this quetion as i need to do some other coding on the project then revist this area, i see what you have added and have been going through the code with this in mind, and will report again if i have not found the solution.
so thanks for the help and will close as to not leave you hanging out there
thsnks for the help so far