$re = '/\d(?= +category)/';
$str = 'id: N group: 1 category: NAMES : Mike
id: N group: 2 category: NAMES : Seth
id: # group: 1 category: PHONE : 123-456-789
id: # group:2 category: PHONE : 111 111-1111
id: @ group: 1 category: EMAIL : mike@mail.com
id: @ group: 2 category: EMAIL : seth@yahoo.com';
preg_match_all($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