$re = '/extend\s+([^n]*)(?:(?P<phase>colloid|mineral|basis|isotope|solid-solution)\s+)?(?P<species>[^\n ]+)\s+({(?P<content>((?:[^{}]++|(?4))*))})/m';
$str = 'extend mineral Uraninite {
kinetics {
rate = -3.2e-08 mol/m2/s
area = Uraninite
y-term, species = Uraninite
w-term {
species = H[+]
power = 0.37
}
}
kinetics {
rate = 3.2e-09 mol/m2/s
area = Uraninite
y-term, species = Uraninite
w-term {
species = H[+]
power = 0.37
}
}
}';
preg_match_all($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