$re = '/([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]*) = \1 \+ [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]*/m';
$str = 'A = A + B
ABZ = ABZ + B
FD = FD + B';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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