$re = '/<img\b(?![^>]*\bnosecure\b)([^>]*)>/';
$str = 'no hit:
<img nosecure="" src="how" style=""/>
<img src="how" nosecure="" style="" />
<img src="how" nosecure style="" />
<img src="never" style="" nosecure />
<img src="never" style="" nosecure/>
<img src="never" style=""nosecure/>
<img src="never" style=""nosecure />
must find:
<img src="never" style=""/>
<img src="how" style=""/>
<img src="nosecure" style=""/>
<img src="nosecurettt" style=""/>
<img src="something" style=""/>
';
preg_match_all($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