regex to replace + characters in php code example

Example 1: preg_replace

<?php
$string = 'April 15, 2003';
$pattern = '/(\w+) (\d+), (\d+)/i';
$replacement = '${1}1,$3';
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);

Example 2: php preg_replace function

preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);