$re = '/([^abc]*?)(a)|(b)|(c)|(ab)|(ba)|(ac)|(ca)|(bc)|(cb)|(abc)|(acb)|(bac)|(bca)|(cab)|(cba)/m';
$str = 'abracadabra
a b c
aa bb cc
ab ac ba bc ca cb
abc acb bac bca cab cba';
$subst = "$1${2:+b}${3:+c}${4:+a}${5:+bc}${6:+cb}${7:+ba}${8:+ab}${9:+ca}${10:+ac}${11:+bca}${12:+bac}${13:+cba}${14:+cab}${15:+abc}${16:+acb}";
$result = preg_replace($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