$re = '/\bvirtual\b\s*(.+?)\s*\boverride\s*(.+?)/ms';
$str = 'virtual void test1() const override;
virtual int test2() override { xxx } //an example of commentary
virtual void test3(int p1,
int p2,
int p3) const override;
virtual void test4(int p1,
int p2,
int p3,
int p4) const override;
virtual void testn(int p1,
int p2,
int p3,
int p4,
......,
int pn) const override;
';
$subst = "$1$2";
$result = preg_replace($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