$re = '/^"(product\stype[1234]\(\d+(?:\.\d+)?\))\s*(:.*?)?"$/m';
$str = '"product type1(0)"
"product type2(923)"
"product type3(10)"
"product type4(110.023) :here is a comment. It always starts with a semicolon"
"product type1(14.4):comments can be just after product entry"
"product type1(10.0) : spaces are not relevant"
"product type1(0000.01) : this kind of entry is acceptable"
"product type1(asd)"
"product type1(12a3.02)"
"product type2(0.)"
"product type2(0.123.123)"
"product type2(0...)"
"product type3(0.asd)"
"product type4(10)" comment doesn\'t start with a semicolon
';
$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