$re = '/(?:I\d-?)*I3(?:-?I\d)*/';
$str = 'A-B-C-I1-I2-D-E-F-I1-I3-D-D-D-D-I1-I1-I3-I1-I1-I3-I4-L-K-I3-P-F-I4-I2';
preg_match_all($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