$re = '/({{|}}|(?:(?!{{|}})[^ ])+(?!({{(?2)*?}}|(?:(?!{{|}}).)*)*$))/m';
$str = '{{}}
aaa {{}}
{{aaa}}
{{aa}} {{bbb}}
{{aaa {{ bb }} }}
{{aa {{ bbb {{ c }} }} }}
{{a{a}{{ b{b}b {{ c }} }} }}';
preg_match_all($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