$re = '~(({if \$var})[^}]*})\s*[^{}]*\s*{/if}~i';
$str = '{if $var}
{if $var}
{if $var}
text
{else}
text *(&@$@!/\\#<?>~`.,+-_
{if $var}
any symbols
{elseif $var}
text
{else}
{if $var}{/if}
{/if}
{if $var}{/if}
{else}
text and symbols *(&@$$@!
{/if}
(({if \\$var})[^}]*})\\s*[^{}]*\\s*{/if} // 2450 steps
(?(?=\\/.?)|({if \\$var}).*?)*(?={\\/if}) // 1531 steps';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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