$re = '/^(\h*const\s+filename\s*=\s*).+/im';
$str = '// blah blah blah
const filename = ""; // it can be filename = \'\'; or filename = null; or filename = undefined; and so on
// blah blah blah';
$subst = "$1\"NEW VALUE\";";
$result = preg_replace($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