$re = '/(?(DEFINE)
(?<block>
\{ # Match opening brace
(?: # Start non-capturing group
[^{}]++ # Match non-brace characters without backtracking
| # or
(?&block) # Recursively match the last captured group
)* # Match 0 or more times
\} # Match closing brace
)
)(.+?)(?&block)(.+)/xs';
$str = 'use strict;
use warnings;
my $text = << "END";
int max(int x, int y)
{
if (x > y)
{
return x;
}
else
{
return y;
}
}
// something here
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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