$re = '~(?:catch\s*\([^)]+\)\s*\{(?=[^\}]*\blog\.debug\b)|\G)\K([^\}]*?)(?:\blog\.debug\b[^\}]*?)~';
$str = 'catch (Exception e)
{
log.debug("word");
//stuff
log.debug("word2");
}
function (Exception e)
{
log.debug("word");
//stuff
log.debug("word2");
}';
$subst = "$1log.error";
$result = preg_replace($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