$re = '/(?<=\S)\s(?=\S)/';
$str = 'SYS W$_FIasdfLESTATXS TABLE PARTI
TION 0 ';
$subst = "_";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str, 1);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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