$re = '/\*?\d(?:\d\.\d\d?|\d?\.\d)/';
$str = '*10.00 5.0 *1 5m';
$subst = "<span style=\"color:yellow\">$0</span>";
$result = preg_replace($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