$re = '/(?>(?:(?:^|,|\r?\n)\s*)(?:"[^"\\\\]*(?:\\\\[\S\s][^"\\\\]*)*"(?:\s*(?:(?=,|\r?\n)|$))|[^,]*(?:\s*(?:(?=,)|$))))*?(?>(?:^|,|\r?\n)\s*)\K"([^"\\\\]*?(?:\\\\[\S\s][^"\\\\]*?)*,[^"\\\\]*(?:\\\\[\S\s][^"\\\\]*)*)"/';
$str = '243,"p s","","","","Smith, Ph.D.","11872","Canada","",29,,,"","","","","","","UT","",,"","Bic. Gaspe",,,,"Dry cliffs",,"","","","","47633","","","","",1938,7,126839
ID,NAME,TITLE,DESCRIPTION,,
PRO1234,"JOHN SMITH",ENGINEER,"JOHN HAS BEEN WORKING
HARD ON BEING A GOOD
SERVENT."
PRO1235,"KEITH SMITH",ENGINEER,"keith, has been working
hard on being a good
servent."
PRO1235,"KENNY SMITH",,"keith has been working
hard on being a good
servent."
PRO1235,"RICK SMITH",,,';
preg_match_all($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