$re = '/<sup>(.*?)<\/sup>/';
$str = '<sup>3</sup>
<sup>4</sup>';
$subst = "<a href=\"#$1\"><sup>$1</sup></a>";
$result = preg_replace($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