$re = '/"[^"]+"(*SKIP)(*F)|:D/';
$str = ':D :D ":D" :D:D:D:D';
$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