$re = '/(?<!\s)\.(?!\s)/m';
$str = 'h.e.ll.o w.o.r.l.d
=> hello world
h.e.ll.o w.o.r.l.d
=> hello world
hello. world
=> hello. world';
$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