$re = '/(comment_id=)(\d+)\|(\d+)\|([^|]+)\|([^|]+)\|(\d+)/';
$str = 'comments={ts=2010-02-09T04:05:20.777+0000, comment_id=529590|2886|LOL|Baoping Wu|529360}
comments={ts=2010-02-09T04:05:20.777+0000, comment_id=529590, user_id = 2886, comment=\'LOL\', user= \'Baoping Wu\', post_commented=529360}';
$subst = "$1$2, user_id = $3, comment='$4', user= '$5', post_commented=$6";
$result = preg_replace($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