$re = '/^(?!$)(?P<real>(?P<sign1>[+-]?)(?P<number1>\d+(?:\.\d+)?))?(?:(?P<imag>(?P<sign2>[+-]?)(?P<number2>\d+(?:\.\d+)?j)))?$/m';
$str = '1+12j
12+18j
-14+45j
54
-87j';
preg_match_all($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