$re = '#((?:A=|\G)\d):#m';
$str = 'A=1:2:3 B=1:2:3 A=1:2:3:4:5 B=1:2:3';
$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