$re = '/>{\d+}</';
$str = '<Financials>
<IncomeStatement>
<Revenue>{0}</Revenue>
<OperatingIncome>{1}</OperatingIncome>
<NetIncome>{2}</NetIncome>
<BasicEPS>{3}</BasicEPS>
<AvgSharesOutstand>{4}</AvgSharesOutstand>
</IncomeStatement>
<BalanceSheet>
<CurrentAssets>{5}</CurrentAssets>
<NonCurrentAssets>{6}</NonCurrentAssets>
<TotalAssets>{7}</TotalAssets>
<CurrentLiabilities>{8}</CurrentLiabilities>
<TotalLiabilities>{9}</TotalLiabilities>
<TotalEquity>{10}</TotalEquity>
</BalanceSheet>
<CashFlow>
<OperatingCashFlow>{11}</OperatingCashFlow>
<CapitalExpenditure>{12}</CapitalExpenditure>
<FreeCashFlow>{13}</FreeCashFlow>
</CashFlow>
</Financials>';
$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