$re = '/([a-zA-Z\d]{8}-[a-zA-Z\d]{4}-[a-zA-Z\d]{8}-[a-zA-Z\d]{12})/m';
$str = '23311544-6311-43f4abd5-7e96ceaa29f2';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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