$re = '/=(?=[\w\'-])|(?<=[\w\'-])=/';
$str = 'I\'ve got a many web APP=. My app= is not working fast. It\'= slow app=
';
$subst = "s";
$result = preg_replace($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