$re = '/(?<!\') *+\[[^\]]*\] *+(?!\')/';
$str = '[field1] = \'id1\'
[field1] = \'[field2]\'
[ field1 ] = \'[field2]\'
[field1] = \' [field2] \'
[field1] = \' [field2] \' And [field3] = \'[field4] \'\' [field5]\'';
preg_match_all($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