character sets: [chars] negated: [^chars] shorthands: word characters: \w [A-Za-z0-9_] whitespace: \s [ \t\r\n] digit: \d [0-9] negated: upper delimiters: start of line: ^ end of line: $ with preg_replace use /m start of string: \A end of string: \Z start/end of word: \b php pattern modifiers: http://php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php m: multiline (to match line-start with ^ and line-end with $) insensitive: i match any/dot matches all chars: s free-spacing mode: x unicode matching mode: u