$re = '/^"[^"\\\\]*(?:\\\\.[^\"\\\\]*)*"$|^\'[^\'\\\\]*(?:\\\\.[^\'\\\\]*)*\'$|^\s*["\'][^"\'\\\\]*|["\']\s*$|\\\\.|(["\'])[^"\'\\\\\n]*/m';
$str = '"Some Text"
"Some more Text"
"Even more text about \\"this text\\""
"Ol\' 8 o\'clock"
\'8 o\'clock\'
\'8 o\'clock\'
\'Ol\' 8 o\'clock\'
""B"
"\\"B"
"\\\\"B"
"\\\\\\"B"
"\\\\\\\\"B"';
$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