$re = '/([^_\n]*)_([^_\n]*)(_.*)?|(.*)(?<!-)-(?!-)(\w+)(.*)/';
$str = 'foo_bar_something-like_this-me
bar--foo_something-like_this-me--
something-like--bar--foo_this-me----
this-me------something-like--bar--foo--
--this-me------something--bar--foo----like
----this------something--bar--foo----like--me
';
$subst = "$2--$1$3$4$6--$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