$re = '/ ^(?P<left>\[|\()\s*(?P<min>[-+]?(?:\d+|\d+\.\d+)(?:[eE][-+]?\d+)?|:neg_infinity)\s*,\s*(?P<max>[-+]?(?:\d+|\d+\.\d+)(?:[eE][-+]?\d+)?|:infinity)\s*(?P<right>]|\))(?:\/\/(?P<step>[-+]?(?:[1-9]+|\d+\.\d+)(?:[eE][-+]?\d+)?))?$/m';
$str = '';
preg_match_all($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