$re = '/(?:[+-]?\d+(?:\.\d+)?[a-z]\^2 [+-] )?\d+(?:\.\d+)?[a-z] [+-] \d+(?:\.\d+)? = 0/m';
$str = '-3x^2 + 4.8x + 4.0 = 0
5x + 4 = 0';
preg_match_all($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