$re = '/(<a(?:\s+\w+\s*=\s*(?P<quote>["\']).*?(?P=quote))*)\s+class\s*=\s*(?P<q>["\']).*?(?P=q)/';
$str = '<p class="red">Link: <a href="http://www.google.com" style ="margin: 0px">google</a>.</p>
<p class="red">Link: <a href="http://www.google.com" class = "link" style="margin: 0px" >google</a>.</p>
<a class=\'foo\'>link text</a>';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($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