$re = '/[0-9]*(?=\-)/';
$str = '1234-123-1234
2234-22-1234
32-32-1234';
$subst = "X";
$result = preg_replace($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