$re = '/{IF\s*([^}]+)}([\s\S]+)(?:{\/?ELSE})([\s\S]+?){\/IF}/im';
$str = '{IF !isLoggedIn}
<a href="/sign-in/">Sign In</a>
{ELSE}
Welcome back, {>username}!<br />
{# students}
<li>{#>last_name}, {#>first_name}</li>
{/#}
{/IF}
{IF isLoggedIn}
Beta Testing...
{/IF}';
preg_match_all($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