$re = '/\{(#+)([a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*)((?:\>[a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*)*)\}\s*(\{\1\>empty\}\s*(.*?)\s*\{\1\>empty\})?\s*([^\n]*)\s*(\{\1\>firstrow\}\s*(.*?)\s*\{\1\>firstrow\})?\s*(\{\1\>row\}\s*(.*?)\s*\{\1\>row\})?\s*(\{\1\>lastrow\}\s*(.*?)\s*\{\1\>lastrow\})?\s*(.*?)\s*\{\1\}/s';
$str = '{#var1>var2}
{#>empty}inside empty{#>empty}
before rows
{#>firstrow}inside firstrow{#>firstrow}
{#>row}inside row{#>row}
{#>lastrow}inside lastrow{#>lastrow}
after rows
{#}';
preg_match($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