$re = '/^\/([a-zA-Z]{2}-[a-zA-Z]{2})\/cms\/api\/preview([a-zA-Z0-9-_=\/]*)(.*?)(?(3)([a-zA-Z0-9-_=&#]*)|)$/m';
$str = '/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/paperino/pluto/minni/amelia?qui=qua&quo=qui#user=Artibani
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/paperino/pluto/minni/amelia?qui=qua&quo=qui&cap_paperopoli=123
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/paperino/pluto/DePaperoni=ricco/paperoga?qui=qua&quo=qui&cap-paperopoli=12345
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/pluto23?qua=qui
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo-clarabella/EN-us/123???
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/pluto-orazio?
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/pico-archimede/
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/pico/archimede
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/paperino/pluto/minni/amelia#user=Faraci
/en-US/cms/api/preview/pippo/paperino/pluto/minni/amelia/#user=Faraci
/en-US/cms/api/preview
/en-US/cms/api/preview/
/en-US/cms/api/preview?
/en-US/cms/api/preview/?
/en-US/cms/api/preview?qui=qua&quo=qui#user=Artibani
/en-US/cms/api/preview/?qui=qua&quo=qui#user=Artibani
/en-US/cms/api/preview#user=Faraci
/en-US/cms/api/preview/#user=Faraci
/en-US/cms/api/preview?#user=Faraci
/en-US/cms/api/preview/?#user=Faraci
Output for Nginx:
/preview/$2?lang=$1&$4';
preg_match_all($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