$re = '/(\(((?:[^()]++|(?1))*)\))\^(\d*\.?\d+)/';
$str = '((2-x+3)^2+(x-5+7)^10)^0.5
pow((2-x+3)^2+(x-5+7)^10, 0.5)';
$subst = "pow(\2, \3)";
$result = preg_replace($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