$re = '/\.[a-z_-][\w-]*(?=[^{}]*{[^{}]*})/';
$str = '.class-a, #id-a, .class-b:hover { text-align: center; }
table.simple{background:#fff;}.bg-white{background:#fff;}
/*# sourceMappingURL=style.css.map */
/*
Example comment file.css
*/';
$subst = ".a";
$result = preg_replace($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