$re = '/(?<=A){n}(?=(?:{n})*A)|\G(?!^){n}/';
$str = '{n}{n}A{n}{n}A{n}
{n}A{n}{n}{n}{n}A
{n}{n}A{n}A{n}{n}
{n}{n}{n}A{n}A{n}B
{n}A{n}{n}B{n}{n}
A{n}B{n}{n}{n}{n}';
$subst = "C";
$result = preg_replace($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