$re = '/([a-z]+)(\.)(?:(\d+)(.*))?/im';
$str = 'one.2021.spurious.other.information.true
one.two.2022.spurious.other.information.true
one.two.three.2023.spurious.other.information.true
one.two.three.four.2024.spurious.other.information.true
one.two.three.four.five.2025.spurious.other.information.true ';
$subst = "$1 $3";
$result = preg_replace($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