$re = '/(username\:\w*)/';
$str = 'wat:a,username:x,super:man
wat:a,username:,super:man
wat:a,username:999,super:man';
$subst = "go:home";
$result = preg_replace($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