$re = '/(?:\n\s{8,}(.*))|(?:\n\s{6,}(]|}))/m';
$str = '{
"layer1": {
"layer2": {
"layer3_1": [
{
"x": 1,
"y": 7
},
{
"x": 0,
"y": 4
},
{
"x": 5,
"y": 3
},
{
"x": 6,
"y": 9
}
],
"layer3_2": "string"
}
}
}';
$subst = "\1\2";
$result = preg_replace($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