$re = '/(?<=\d)_\d(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|_/m';
$str = '_this_is_a_2_2_replacement_';
$subst = ".";
$result = preg_replace($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