$re = '/\n{3,}/m';
$str = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
Tincidunt nunc pulvinar sapien et ligula ullamcorper
malesuada proin libero. Sit amet risus nullam eget.
Purus gravida quis blandit turpis cursus in hac. Felis
bibendum ut tristique et egestas. Curabitur vitae nunc sed
vitae nunc sed velit. Nunc faucibus a pellentesque sit amet
porttitor eget dolor.';
$subst = "\n\n";
$result = preg_replace($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