$re = '/(?P<number_of_elements>\*\d)\\\\r\\\\n((\$\d)\\\\r\\\\n(\w+)\\\\r\\\\n)*/m';
$str = '*2\\r\\n$5\\r\\nhello\\r\\n$5\\r\\nworld\\r\\n
*0\\r\\n
';
preg_match_all($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