$re = '/^(\d+)\h+-\h+\1$/m';
$str = '9993990487 - 9993990487
9993990553 - 9993990553
9993990554 - 9993990559
9993990570 - 9993990570
9993990593 - 9993990596
9993990594 - 9993990594';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($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