$re = '/^update\s+(?<table>[a-z_]+)\s+set\s+(?<columns>.+(?=.*\bwhere\b))(?:\s+where\s+(?<where>.+))?;?$/i';
$str = 'update nabi set fjfhj where jjj;';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str, 1);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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