$re = '/^(?:[A-Za-z0-9]{17}|[A-Za-z0-9]{8}[*_][A-Za-z0-9]{2})$/m';
$str = '5UXWX7C56BA12345
False False
5UXWX7C56BA123456
True True
5UXWX7C56BA1234569
True False UNEXPECTED
5UXWX7C5*B
False False
5UXWX7C5*BA
True True
5UXWX7C5*BA1
False False
';
preg_match_all($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