$re = '/^(?:(?:>|<(?!.*<))?[a-zA-Z]+(?:(?:\+|-)\d*\.?\d*(?:em)?)?)(?:<?[a-zA-Z]+(?:(?:\+|-)\d*\.?\d*(?:em)?)?)?$/m';
$str = '<alpha<bravo
alpha
alphaBravo
alphaBravoCharlie
>alpha
<alpha
>alpha+10
<alpha+10
>alpha+1.5
<alpha+1.5
>alpha-10
>alpha-10
>alpha-1.5
>alpha-1.5
>alpha+10em
<alpha+10em
>alpha+1.5em
<alpha+1.5em
>alpha-1.5em
>alpha-1.5em
alpha-50em<delta-100em
alpha-50em<delta+100em
>alpha-50em<delta+100em
';
preg_match_all($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