$re = '/(^|\s)(#(\w+))/m';
$str = 'To take this -> #test
#test <- to take this
to take this #test another word
to take this #Mest another word
To don\'t take this -> l\'#09
to don\'t take this -> » or '';
$subst = "$1<a href=\"/hash/$3\" class='hash_tag'>$2</a>";
$result = preg_replace($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