$re = '/.*atewire_([^_]*)_.*/m';
$str = 'param0_test1_param1_affiliatewire_%nameID%_test2_param2_param3
param0_test1_param1_affiliatewire_name1_test2_param2_param3
param0_test1_param1_affiliatewire_name_test2_param2_param3
param0_test1_param1_affiliatewire_trollolo_test2_param2_param3';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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