$re = '/from (\w+);$/m';
$str = 'Create new-table1 ... As select ..from table1;
Create new-table2 ... As select ..from table2;
Create new-table3 ... As select ..from table3;';
$subst = "from $1 where 1000 <= (select count(1) from $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