$re = '@^(\s+)<ProjectReference(.|\s)+?(Project2)</Name>(.|\s)+?</ProjectReference>@';
$str = ' <ProjectReference Include="..\\..\\Project1\\Project1\\Project1.csproj">
<Project>{714c6b26-c609-40a4-80a9-421bd842562d}</Project>
<Name>Project1</Name>
</ProjectReference>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\\..\\Project2\\Project2.csproj">
<Project>{6c2a7631-8b47-4ae9-a68f-f728666105b9}</Project>
<Name>Project2</Name>
</ProjectReference>
<ProjectReference Include="..\\..\\Project3\\Project3\\Project3.csproj">
<Project>{39860208-8146-429f-a1d1-5f8ed2fd7f5f}</Project>
<Name>Project3</Name>
</ProjectReference>
<ProjectReference Include="..\\..\\Project4\\Project4.csproj">
<Project>{58144d60-19d9-4d11-8ae6-088e03ccf874}</Project>
<Name>Project4</Name>
</ProjectReference>
<ProjectReference Include="..\\..\\Project5\\Project5.csproj">
<Project>{33baa509-ad24-4a72-a2fc-8f297e75e90d}</Project>
<Name>Project5</Name>
</ProjectReference>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="\'$(VisualStudioVersion)\' == \'\'">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="\'$(VSToolsPath)\' == \'\'">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>';
preg_match($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