$re = '/(http://.*?)(?=\sxmlns|>)/';
$str = '<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/ xmlns:soap=http://www.4cgroup.co.za/soapauth xmlns:gen=http://www.4cgroup.co.za/genericsoap>
';
$subst = "\"\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