$re = '/(^/\*\*)|(.*?\*+/$)/m';
$str = '/**
* Method1
* .....
* @return
*/
public int Method1() { }
// this method should be @deprecated
public void Method2() { }
/**
* Method3
* .....
* @return
*/
public int Method3() { }';
preg_match_all($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