$re = '/(?<=\=).+?((?=\t)|(?=\n))/m';
$str = '=friction_t1!$B$2abc =friction_t1!$B$3 =friction_t1!$B$4
=friction_t2!$B$2 =friction_t2!$B$3 =friction_t2!$B$4
=friction_t3!$B$2 =friction_t3!$B$3 =friction_t3!$B$4
';
preg_match_all($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