$re = '/(?<num1>\d*)?a?(?<num2>\d*)?b?(?<num3>\d*)/m';
$str = '111a222b333
111
111b333';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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