$re = '/^(.+order_by=).+?(&|$)(.*)$/m';
$str = 'http://www.stackoverflow.com?a=1&b=2
http://www.stackoverflow.com?a=2&b=3&order_by=old_data
http://www.stackoverflow.com?a=2&b=3&order_by=old_data&c=4
http://www.stackoverflow.com?order_by=old_data&a=2&b=3
http://www.stackoverflow.com
$1new_sort$2$3';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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