$re = '/(GIR\s0AA)|((([A-PR-UWYZ][0-9][0-9]?)|(([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y][0-9](?<!(BR|FY|HA|HD|HG|HR|HS|HX|JE|LD|SM|SR|WC|WN|ZE)[0-9])[0-9])|([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y](?<!AB|LL|SO)[0-9])|(WC[0-9][A-Z])|(([A-PR-UWYZ][0-9][A-HJKPSTUW])|([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y][0-9][ABEHMNPRVWXY]))))\s[0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2})/';
$str = 'GIR 0AA';
preg_match_all($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