$re = '/(?P<number>\d+)\s+(?P<Item_Name>\w+)\s+(?P<code>[a-zA-Z]{0,3})\s+(?P<status>SOLD|SALE|PURCHASED)/';
$str = '99 ITEM SEC SALE';
preg_match($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