$re = '/"need".*{.*,?".*?":(".+?").*}/';
$str = '"skip" : {"A":"ABCD123","B":"ABCD1234","C":"ABCD1235"}
"need" : {"A":"ZABCD123","B":"ZABCD1234","C:"ZABCD1235"}
"need" : {"A":"ZABCD123" : {a"B":"ZABCD123"
"ignore" : {"A":"SABCD123","B":"SABCD1234","C":"SABCD1235"}';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($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