$re = '/^[A-Z]{1,4}-[0-9]{1,4}:\s(\w*)(\((\w+)\))?:\s(.*)$/m';
$str = 'AAAA-12: fix(test): fixed the failing test
AAAA-12: fix: fixed the failing test
AAAA-12: fix(): fixed the failing test
AAAA-12(): fix: fixed the failing test';
preg_match_all($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