$re = '/#[\w\d][\w\-]*/m';
$str = '#hashtag some text #hash; #123
and # not because markdown
# that not
#33 that is not
either but #3isok
or #isok3
astring#andthatshouldnotmatch
#hashtagalone
\\n#hashatthebeginning
hello #hashattheend\\n
#has_htag
#ano-the-rone';
preg_match_all($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