$re = '/(?<=_)[^_]+(?=\.txt)/m';
$str = '1994_post_elections_Mandela.txt
1994_pre_elections_deKlerk.txt
1995_Mandela.txt
1996_Mandela.txt
1997_Mandela.txt
1998_Mandela.txt
1999_post_elections_Mandela.txt
1999_pre_elections_Mandela.txt
2000_Mbeki.txt';
preg_match_all($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