$re = '/[\s]+(?![^><]*>)/m';
$str = '<root>
<result success="1"/>
<userID>12345</userID>
<classID>56543</classID>
</root>';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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