$re = '/\(((?>[^()]|(?R))*)\)/';
$str = 'x= coord(:,1);
y= coord(:,2);
natG_coord(1,1)= sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(2,1)= -sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(3,1)= -sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(4,1)= sqrt(1/3);
for i=1:4
dNG(1,i)= (1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(2,i)= -(1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(3,i)= -(1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(4,i)= (1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
end';
$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