$re = '/\[\d*(?:([;,])(?:\d+\1)*\d+)?\]/m';
$str = '[1,2,3,20,4]
[5;67;8;1;6]
[123]
[12,23]
[]
[1,2;4;5,6,7;8]';
preg_match_all($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