$re = '/^([0-9A-Fa-f]{8}[-][0-9A-Fa-f]{4}[-][0-9A-Fa-f]{4}[-][0-9A-Fa-f]{4}[-][0-9A-Fa-f]{12})$/im';
$str = 'f27a5b7f-0b7c-4e79-aff5-bdb0d34f3a9f';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($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