$re = '/(?: # group, but do not capture:
foo # \'foo\'
| # OR
bar # \'bar\'
| # OR
baz # \'baz\'
) # end of grouping
(?= # look ahead to see if there is:
quz # \'quz\'
) # end of look-ahead/x';
$str = 'fooquz';
preg_match($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