$re = '/, (?![^()]*\))/';
$str = 'key1: val1, key2: (val2.1, val2.2, val2.3), key3: (), key4: val4';
$subst = "\n";
$result = preg_replace($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