$re = '/^[^?]+.*?&?q=([^$|&]+)/';
$str = '/myweb/search?s=islamic_sources&q=test
/myweb/search?q=test
/myweb/search?q=test&g=sth';
$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