$re = '/(?=\[(!\[.+?\]\(.+?\)|.+?)]\(((https|http):\/\/[^\)]+)\))/i';
$str = '#Regex for images and links
## Links
[example 1](https://example.com)
This [link](https://example2.com) is inline
## Images


[](http://link.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