php - How to skip first regex match?

Question

Is there anyway to skip the first match when using regex and php.

Or is there some way of achieveing this using str_replace.

Thanks

UPDATE I am trying to remove all the instances of a string from another string but I want to retain the first occurance e.g

$toRemove = 'test';
$string = 'This is a test string to test to removing the word test';

Ouput string would be:

This is a test string to test to removing the word test

Answer 1

preg_replace('/((?:^.*?test)?.*?)test/', '$1', $string);

The idea is to match and capture whatever precedes each match, and plug it back in. (?:^.*?test)? causes the first instance of test to be included in the capture. (All the s are to avoid partial-word matches, like the test in smartest or testify.)