$re = '/^(http[s]?:\/\/www\.domain)(.*)(paramZ\=[\d]+)(.*)$/m';
$str = 'http://www.domain.com/?paramZ=123456
https://www.domain.com/?param1=val1;param2=val2;param3=val3;paramZ=123456
http://www.domain.com/one/or/more?paramZ=123456;param1=val1;param2=val2;param3=val3
https://www.domain.com/one/or/more?param1=val1;paramZ=123456;param2=val2;param3=val3
http://www.domain.com/one/or/more?param1=val1;param2=val2;param3=val3';
$subst = "$1$2paramZ=987654$4";
$result = preg_replace($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