$re = '/^\s*\|\s*([^=]*?)\s*=(.*)$/m';
$str = '{{Infobox XYZ
|first parameter=foo
|second_parameter=
|3rd parameter=bar
|4th=bazzzzz
|5th=
|etc.=
}}';
$subst = " | $1 = $2";
$result = preg_replace($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