$re = '/^(?!.*?(?<=^|\;)[a-zA-Z]+( [a-zA-Z]+)*(\=[^\;]+?\=[^\;]*)?(\;|$))+([a-zA-Z]+( [a-zA-Z]+)*\=[^\;]+\;?)+$/';
$str = 'option=value;missingvalue;multiple assignment=123=456';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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