$re = '/^.*\/api\/(?!.*(?:\.jpg|statistics)$).*$/m';
$str = 'http://localhost:8081/api/software-features
http://localhost:8081/api/user-groups/logged-user-group
http://localhost:8081/api/user-groups/%7B4D7E2585-32E3-4794-A0F3-4FE7D56D27AE%7D/permissions/system
http://localhost:8081/api/servers/%7B499C3279-CD5D-402E-A60B-6AE0B5A21EE0%7D/cameras
http://localhost:8081/api/servers/%7B499C3279-CD5D-402E-A60B-6AE0B5A21EE0%7D/cameras/0/streams/0/statistics
http://localhost:8081/api/servers/%7B499C3279-CD5D-402E-A60B-6AE0B5A21EE0%7D/cameras/0/streams/0/image-640x480.jpg';
preg_match_all($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