$re = '/.*?\b([A-Z]{3})\b.*/m';
$str = '147 EUR | 39927: 86.9 EUR | 39928: 49.35 EUR';
$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