$re = '/(?:\*|\G(?<!^)")[^*"]*"\K[^*"]*(?=".*\*)|(\*[^*]*\*|\G(?<!^)"[^"*]*\*)(*SKIP)(*F)/';
$str = '*test1 "test2" test3 "test4"* *test5* "test6" *"test7"*';
preg_match_all($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