$re = '/\w(?=\w{4})/m';
$str = '4f563a46jy7u35616
4f56sdfsddf
okmefiwmkiol
drejkskmilw
123434355454
34223';
$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