$re = '/(?::|^)((?:0+:){2,}0+)(?=:|$)|(?::|^)(0+)([0-9a-f]+)(?=:|$)|\b0+([0-9a-f]{1,4})\b/i';
$str = '2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0001
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:00a2
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:00ff
a:b:0:c:d:e:f:g
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0001
:00ff:0000:
0012:0000:0000:0000:0001';
$subst = "${1:+::}${3}${4}";
$result = preg_replace($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