$re = '/(?<!\d)\d{3}(?!\d)/';
$str = 'a 123 234 b
- Has to match 123 and 234
a 123_234 b
- Has to match 123 and 234
aa123 234 b
- Has to match 123 and 234
a0123 234 b
- Has to match only 234
123a234 b
- Has to match 123 and 234
a 123 234
- Has to match 123 and 234';
preg_match_all($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