$re = '/\bMDSYS\.SDO_POINT_TYPE\(([^()]+)\)/m';
$str = 'lst = [\'SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, NULL, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(9971, 18847, NULL), NULL, NULL)\',
\'SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, NULL, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(9971, 19188, NULL), NULL, NULL)\',
\'SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, NULL, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(9972, 18282, NULL), NULL, NULL)\',
\'SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, NULL, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(9977, 19201, NULL), NULL, NULL)\',
\'SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, NULL, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(9989, 18635, NULL), NULL, NULL)\']';
$subst = "\n";
$result = preg_replace($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