$re = '/(?i)(\s*)(|"|\')(name|phoneNumber|race|gender|birthdate|geodata)(|"|\')(\s*)(:|=)(\s*)(\'|"|\s*)(\s*)(^$|.*?)(\s*)(\'|,|"|\))/m';
$str = '"username":"username"
"phonenumber":"123 456 7890"
"race":"undisclosed"
"gender":"female"
"birthdate":"03/12/1889"
"geodata":"123 456 7890"
"phonenumber":"123 456 7890"
"geodata":"38.897957"';
$subst = "$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9*******$11$12";
$result = preg_replace($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