$re = '/(![!>#]?(?:(?=[^\s!>#$]|\s{2}|\s\$)|\$(?!\S)))\s*(.*)/m';
$str = 'Should not match:
! Hi
!! Hi
!> Hi
Needs to match, with ! !! !> being in a group:
!Hi
!!Hi
!>Hi
! Hi
!! Hi
!> Hi
! Hi
!! Hi
!> Hi
Ideally should not match:
!$OMP
Ideally should Match:
! $
!$ OMP
!$ Hi';
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