$re = '/.(.*)(]\s)(.[a-zA-Z]*)(..)(.*)/m';
$str = '[1518-08-11 00:47] falls asleep
[1518-03-09 00:07] falls asleep
[1518-06-29 00:41] wakes up
[1518-05-27 23:58] Guard #743 begins shift
[1518-05-19 00:43] falls asleep
[1518-03-17 00:33] falls asleep
[1518-07-12 00:49] falls asleep
[1518-11-03 00:15] wakes up
[1518-06-05 00:57] wakes up
[1518-11-07 00:24] falls asleep
[1518-07-06 00:12] falls asleep
[1518-05-26 23:59] Guard #907 begins shift
[1518-06-01 00:28] wakes up
[1518-11-09 00:04] falls asleep
';
preg_match_all($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