$re = '/^\s*DO\s*[0-9]*\s*([A-Z])\s*=\s*1,\s*([0-9]+|[A-Z]+)\s*{*/m';
$str = 'DO 2 I = 1, 56 {
DO L = 1, 56 {
DO M = 1, MM {
CALL S(M, A);//read new SFiles
DO K = 1, 91{
';
$subst = "for ($1 = 0; $1 < $2; $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