$re = '/^(\S+)\s+/im';
$str = '2014-05-09 12:28:06 Lab bench another
2014-06-10 01:28:31 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-11 12:38:04 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-13 14:38:06 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-13 12:38:17 Membrane capacitance
2014-05-14 16:38:17 Membrane resistance ';
$subst = "$1\t";
$result = preg_replace($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