$re = '/"17"\s*:\s*\{[^}]*\}/m';
$str = '}
"17" : {
"columnId" : 17,
"columnName" : "id",
"value" : "1299:;6775"
},
"19" : {
"columnId" : 19,
"columnName" : "HelloWorld",
"value" : "Test 2.:;34147"
},
"21" : {
"columnId" : 21,
"columnName" : "Testing",
"value" : "Test"
}
"17" : {
"columnId" : 17,
"columnName" : "id",
"value" : "1299:;6775"
},
"19" : {
"columnId" : 19,
"columnName" : "HelloWorld",
"value" : "Test.:;34147"
},';
preg_match_all($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