$re = '/(,\s*\"attr\" *: *\".*\"|(?=\s*\}))|(\s*\"attr\" *: *\".*\"(,|(?=\s*\})))/';
$str = '{"attr": "singlematch"}
{
"attr": "MYVALUE",
"anotherAttr0": "foobar",
"attr": "MYVALUE2",
"attr":"witthourspace",
"attr": 23,
"anotherAttr1": false,
"attr": "notin arow",
"anotherAttr2": "300",
"attr": "MYVALUE3"
}
{"attr":"single match no space"}
{ "attr" : "Weird spacing"}
{
"attr": "Simple json isn\'t collapsed but, that\'s fine"
}
{
"attr2": "bob",
}
{}
{
"a":1,
"b":2,
}
{
"attr": "fred",
"attr": "Joe",
"attr": "Hey!"
}
{
"a":2,
"attr":"test",
"bob":2,
}';
$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