$re = '/^\h*(<[^>]*>|\S+)\h+(.*?)\h+(<[^>]*>|\S+)\h*$/m';
$str = 'ewd1 serpent 0 n ne o u w nw swamp
bats 0 n ne o u w nw swamp
undead 0 n ne o u w nw swamp
n river2 n ne o u
1002 e d
n <ewd8 ewd9 ewd2> se
n ewd9 s
n ewd2 sw
n rough w nw swamp
ewd2 serpent 0 w nw n swamp
bats 0 w nw n swamp
undead 0 w nw n swamp
n rough w nw n swamp
n <ewd1 ewd9 ewd10> ne o
n ewd9 e
n ewd10 se
n ewd4 s
n ewd3 sw';
preg_match_all($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