$re = '/TRACE\([&](\w+)(\s*)[,](\s*)(\w+)(\s*)[,](\s*)(\w+)(\s*)[,]/m';
$str = 'TRACE(&logger_mr , DEBUG_2, NULL,UdpPathMgmtLogger::entranceStr_sc);
TRACE(&logger_mr,DEBUG_2, NULL,
UdpPathMgmtLogger::entranceStr_sc);
TRACE(&logger_mr , DEBUG_2 , NULL ,
UdpPathMgmtLogger::entranceStr_sc;';
$subst = "TRACE\(";
$result = preg_replace($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