$re = '/(?m)^.*\.$|\([^()]*\)|if\(.*?\/\/endif|(\b\d+\b)/';
$str = 'cat 123 sat.
I like 000 not (456) though 111 is fine
222 if( //endif if(cat==789 stuff //endif 333';
preg_match_all($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