$re = '/(?<=\S)\s+(?=(?:\d+\.\d+|optimised)\b)/m';
$str = ' 23.32 | x232 code | This is a description| 43.11 | a341 code | some other description | optimised | v333 code | still another description';
preg_match_all($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