<html> <head> <title>preg_replace</title> </head> <body> <?php $string = "<a href=\"http://www.java2java.com/\">java2s</a><br />"; $pattern = '/<a[ .]*?(href *= *".*?").*?>(.*?)<\/a>/i'; $replacement = '\2: <a \1>\1</a>'; $string = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string); print($string); ?> </body> </html>