$re = '/\'([^\\\\\']*(?:\\\\.[^\\\\\']*)*)\'|"([^\\\\"]*(?:\\\\.[^\\\\"]*)*)"/m';
$str = '\'foo bar baz\' foo barbar baz "foo bar \\"baz foo\\" bar baz" foo bar \'foo \\\'bar bar\\\' baz\' bar \'foo bar baz\' foo barbar baz "foo bar \\"baz foo\\" bar baz" foo bar \'foo \\\'bar bar\\\' baz\' bar \'foo bar baz\' foo barbar baz "foo bar \\"baz foo\\" bar baz" foo bar \'foo \\\'bar bar\\\' baz\' bar \'foo bar baz\' foo barbar baz "foo bar \\"baz foo\\" bar baz" foo bar';
preg_match_all($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