$re = '/\s*(=?)\s*foo(?!\s*=)/m';
$str = '1) foo=foo
2) foo = foo
3) (foo)=foo ';
$subst = "$1bar";
$result = preg_replace($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