$re = '/((?<!\\\\)(?:\\\\{2})*)["\']/m';
$str = '"value" -> value
\'value\' -> value
"\\"value\\"" -> \\"value\\" <-- contains escaped quotes
"value\\" -> value\\"
"value\\\\" -> value\\\\ <-- contains escaped backslash before non-escaped quote
"""val"ue\\\\\\""" -> value\\\\\\"';
$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