$re = '/^\h*(?:(?:(\w+)\|)?(?|(?:(aa|bb|cc):(?:(\w+):)?)|(?:((?2)):)?(\w+):)?)?(\w+)::(\w+)$/m';
$str = ' group4::group5
aa:group4::group5
bb:group4::group5
cc:group4::group5
group1|group4::group5
group1|aa:group4::group5
group3:group4::group5
aa:group3:group4::group5
group1|group3:group4::group5
group1|aa:group3:group4::group5
// aa, bb, cc must goes to group2';
preg_match_all($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