$re = '/(\d{4})\/(\d{2})\/(.*)\.html/m';
$str = 'article-paris-sous-la-neige-de-solferino-aux-tuileries-41499862.html';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php