$re = '/^(\[(\d+|(?:\d*\.\d+))(?:,\s*(\d+|(?:\d*\.\d+)))*\])\s*[\*x]\s*(\[(\d+|(?:\d*\.\d+))(?:,\s*(\d+|(?:\d*\.\d+)))*\])$/m';
$str = '[0]*[1]
[2,3]*[4,5]
[6, 7, 8] * [9, 10, 11]
[12,13, 14]* [15, 16,17]
[0]x[1]
[2,3]x[4,5]
[6, 7, 8] x [9, 10, 11]
[12,13, 14]x [15, 16,17]
[1.2, 3, 4.5] x [6, 7.8, 9]';
preg_match_all($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