$re = '/([A-Z0-9])([A-Z0-9]{3})([A-Z0-9]{4})([A-Z0-9]{2})([A-Z0-9]{3})([A-Z0-9])/';
$str = 'X839WS21R4E877
X83RWS21B3E87A
';
$subst = "$1-$2 $3 $4-$5 ($6)";
$result = preg_replace($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