$re = '/(?<=id=")([^"\n]+)"[^#\n]+#\K/m';
$str = '<li><a id="a4.9" href="trigger_marker.html#">Trigger marker</a> </li>
<li><a id="a4.10" href="timedelayarrow.html#">Time-delay arrow</a> </li>
<li><a id="a4.11" href="spectrumview.html#">Spectrum view</a> </li>';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($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