$re = '/^(\d+),([^,]+),(\d+),([0-9\.]+)$/m';
$str = '24,ELA.4,12,9.09
';
$subst = "UPDATE cbl_student_competencies SET BaselineRating = $4 WHERE StudentID = $1 AND Level = $3 AND CompetencyID = (SELECT ID FROM cbl_competencies WHERE Code = \"$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