$re = '/ (?(DEFINE)
(?<unreserved>[a-z0-9_~\-]) # . is missing as it is used to separate labels
(?<sub_delims>[!$&\'()*+,;=])
(?<encoded>%[A-F0-9]{2})
(?<reg_name>(?:(?&unreserved)|(?&sub_delims)|(?&encoded))*)
)
^(?:(?®_name)\.)*(?®_name)\.?$/ix';
$str = '_example.com';
preg_match($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