$re = '/^(?!.*[a-zA-Z])\W*(\d+)\W*$/m';
$str = '(5)
[[12]]
{3}
#!8(#
!255=
/879/
@#@434dsd@#2';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($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