$re = '/^(?:[a-z\d]{3,}[_ ](?:[a-z\d]{2,}[_ ][a-z\d]{4,})?)?[a-z\d]*$/im';
$str = 'Valid:
a
b1
abcdefg
123_VBV
123_ABC_ERRR
12345
123456789abcdefg
123_AB_YYYY
123_ABC_YYYY
Invalid:
123__
123_gg_
_12345
1 2345
123 a_bc
123_ 45
123__45
123 45
123_gg_
123_VBV_HH_
Foo_Bar_Baz_123
Foo Bar_Baz_123
123_AB_YYY
123_ggg_';
preg_match_all($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