$re = '/<p>\s*(<a[^>]*>)?(<img[^>]+>)(<\/a>)?\s*<\/p>/im';
$str = '<html>
<p><a href=""><img src="" /></a></p>
<p><img src="" /></p>
</html>';
$subst = "\1\2\3";
$result = preg_replace($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