$re = '/^[^\d+-]*([+-]?)\s*+(\d++(?:\.\d+)?)|\G[^\d+-]*(?:([+-])\s*+((?2))|((?2)))|[+-]++|[^+-]++/';
$str = ' Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Nullam 000 ut finibus 111 lectus.
Praesent 222 eu 333 sem lorem.
Fusce elementum 444 gravida 555 luctus.
Sed non "accumsan" - 777 lorem!
1. Vivamus at mauris mi.[1]
2. Duis ac faucibus elit.[2][3]
3. Sed sed \'tempor\' diam.[4,5]
Vivamus 2024-12-21 tincidunt tristique dolor.
"Morbi vel blandit augue?"
Morbi eu tortor 25.25 ligula.';
$subst = "${2:+$1$2}${3:+$3$4}${5:++$5}";
$result = preg_replace($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