$re = '/\"([a-zA-Z]\w+)\"(?=:)/m';
$str = 'props: {
"label": "1rem",
"text3": "1rem",
"text2Button": "1rem",
"1": "1rem",
"5spacing": 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