$re = '/"([^\\\\"\r\n]*(?:\\\\.[^\\\\"\r\n]*)*)"/';
$str = '3.5" hdd
"hello"
"cool
"bounce"
single sentence with out quotes.';
$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