$re = '/(?(DEFINE) # regex definitions
(?P<string>[a-zA-Z0-9]+)
(?P<value>\s*(?:(?&string)|(?&array)|(?&object))\s*)
(?P<array>\s*\[\s*(?&value)\s*(?:\s*,\s*(?&value)\s*)*\])
(?P<pair>(?&string)\s*:\s*(?&value))
(?P<object>\{\s*(?&pair)\s*(?:\s*,\s*(?&pair)\s*)*\})
)
(?&object)/mx';
$str = ' {
foo : bar,
baz : [aa, bb, ccc],
123 : 123,
obj : { foo : bar}
}
';
preg_match_all($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