$re = '/\b0*1(?=0+~)|\b0+|([0-9])(?=0*~[0-9]*?\1([0-9]))|~[0-9]*/';
$str = '000~09876543210
0001~09876543210
1~09876543210
2~09876543210
3~09876543210
004~09876543210
10~09876543210
0010~09876543210
0020~09876543210
210~09876543210
438~09876543210
1000~09876543210';
$subst = "$2";
$result = preg_replace($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