$re = '/(?<=\d)[[:blank:]]+(?!$)|[[:blank:]]+(?=\d)/m';
$str = '708 447 4797 JOHN SMITH 18000
708 447 4797 JOHN SMITH 18000
708 447 4797 JOHN SMITH 18000
708 -3.00 4797 JOHN SMITH 18000';
$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