$re = '/\b([1-9]|[1-8][0-9]|9[0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-4])\.([0-9]|[1-8][0-9]|9[0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.([0-9]|[1-8][0-9]|9[0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.([1-9]|[1-8][0-9]|9[0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-4]):([0-9]|[1-8][0-9]|9[0-9]|[1-8][0-9]{2}|9[0-8][0-9]|99[0-9]|[1-8][0-9]{3}|9[0-8][0-9]{2}|99[0-8][0-9]|999[0-9]|[1-5][0-9]{4}|6[0-4][0-9]{3}|65[0-4][0-9]{2}|655[0-2][0-9]|6553[0-5])\b/m';
$str = '254.255.255.254:65535
1.0.0.1:0';
$subst = "**[DATA EXPUNGED]**";
$result = preg_replace($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