$re = '/(\bfox\b)/';
$str = 'the quick brown fox // matches
fox jumps over the lazy dog // matches
quick brown fox jumps over // matches
the quick brownfox // does not match
foxjumps over the lazy dog // does not match
quick brownfox jumps over // does not match
quick brown foxjumps over // does not match
quick brownfoxjumps over // does not match';
preg_match_all($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