$re = '/\B@([a-z0-9](?:-(?=[a-z0-9])|[a-z0-9]){0,38}(?<=[a-z0-9]))/i';
$str = '@username
@user in a @user2 pagagraph of @user: text @usern-ame! @inalid-
@d
@12345678912345678912345678911112345678904
@invalid--username
and @valid-username-: l
@-a
@-invalid
@1
@a
@invalid-
hdj @hfd.com
some @valid-dd username
email@test.com
@validu-sername- but is it worth it?
@johndoe.
@johndoe-
@johndoe-a
@fo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o';
preg_match_all($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