$re = '~\b(?:p(?:i|ow)|m(?:in|ax))\b(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|[^0-9().,+*/\s-]+~m';
$str = '25 * (233 - 1.5)
pow(25,2) / pi(); hack the pentagon;';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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