$re = '/(?<=\'.*)\bday(?=s\b|\b)/m';
$str = '\'*** This day is the day of all days
\'*** This day is the day of all days
Dim day as integer \'so far so good today but maybe not another day
day=day+1 \'a daystar is a planet visible in the east before sunrise
Regex is not perfect
text1.Text = "\'day" \' we don\'t want to change that one
';
$subst = "night";
$result = preg_replace($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