$re = '/\[(.*)("id": )(".*").*}.*(\[.*\]).*\]/s';
$str = '[
{
"id": "12erf3-312331-233"
},
[
{
"id": "1234",
"id2": "1234",
"id3": "1234"
},
{
"id": "1234",
"id2": "1234",
"id3": "1234"
},
{
"id": "1234",
"id2": "1234",
"id3": "1234"
},
{
"id": "1234",
"id2": "1234",
"id3": "5555"
}
]
]';
preg_match($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