$re = '/\B%[a-z0-9]+\b/';
$str = '1. %xxxxxxxxxxxxx //match
2. this will work %xxxxxx but not this%xxxxxxxxx. //match 1st, not 2nd
3. and also %xxxxxxxxxx. //match
4. just a line ending with %xxxxxxxxxxx //match
5. %Xxxxxxxxxxx //no match
6. 100% of dogs //no match
7. 65%. Begining of new phrase //no match
8. 65%.Begining of new phrase //no match';
preg_match_all($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