$re = '/^.*(\d{3}\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+).*$/s';
$str = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
consectetur adipisicing elit
IP: 284.283.47.9
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str, 1);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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