$re = '/\{(\d)}(\()/m';
$str = 'td{2}(i,j),
td{3}(i,j),
td{4}(i,j),';
$subst = "$2$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