$re = '/(\d{3})\B/m';
$str = '0987654321
987654321
87654321
7654321
654321
54321
4321
321
21
1
';
$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