$re = '/\d+(\-[XIV]+)*(\-\d+)*/';
$str = '1 2 3 the
the quick 2354
feb 1
feb 0
feb -10
feb23
88
feb 3
february 10';
preg_match($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