$re = '/\w+\((?:\w+(?:\s*,\s*\w+)*)?\)/m';
$str = 'Hello, world test(test) testing
Hello, world test(test)test testing
test()
test(a, b)
test(,)
test(,a)';
$subst = "[\d][\d][\d]";
$result = preg_replace($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