$re = '/((\s*(const|let|var)\s*)(\w+)(\s*=\s*)(require\s*\(")(\w+)("\s*\)\s*;))/';
$str = 'const path = require ("path") ;
let path = require("path");
var path = require("path");';
$subst = "$4,$7";
$result = preg_replace($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