$re = '/^class\d+\K->.*(?=\[[^][]*\];$)/m';
$str = 'class1->Signal = sample1_sample2.sample3_sample4[4:4];
class2->Signal = sample1.sample2.sample3_sample4_sample5[2];
class3->Signal = sample1+sample2_sample3.sample4.sample5sample7[7:3];
class4->Signal = sample1[1]+sample2_sample3.sample4.sample5sample7[7:3];';
$subst = " bit = ";
$result = preg_replace($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