$re = '/([#.A-Za-z0-9]+):({)/';
$str = '#a:{width:100px;height:100px;background-color:black;} #b:{width:100px;}';
$subst = "$1$2";
$result = preg_replace($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