$re = '/(?| # two alternatives whose group numbers both begin at 1
\\\\autocites # match the command
(?|\{([^}]*)\}|\[([^]]*)\])
# and a parameter in group 1
| # OR
\G # anchor the match to the end of the last match
(?|\{([^}]*)\}|\[([^]]*)\])
# and match a parameter in group 1
)
/x';
$str = '\\autocites[a][b]{c}[d][e]{f}[a][a]{a}';
preg_match_all($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