$re = '/(\d+(?=\[))\[([^\(\[\{\}\]\)]+)\]/';
$str = '//Valid match
12[red,green],13[xs,xl,xxl]
number[anythingBut ()[]{},anythingBut ()[]{}](,number[anythingBut ()[]{},anythingBut ()[]{}]) or nothing
//Not valid match
12[red,green],13[xs,xl,xxl 9974-?ds12[dfgd,dfgd]]';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
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