$re = '/(((?:\<|\[)a href=\'|\")?((?:http:\/\/)?((?:www\.)?(?:[\w\d-_]*?\.)+(?:\w{2,4}))(?:\/?)(?:[\w\d-_]+))((?:(?:\'|\")(?:\>|\]))(?:[\w\d-_]+)(?:(?:\<|\[)\/a(?:\>|\])))?)/is';
$str = '[a href=\'http://vk.com/id9025145\']ntcn[/a]
<a href=\'http://vk.com/id9025145\'>ntcn</a>
http://vk.com/id9025145';
preg_match($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