$re = '/^(\s*[><]\s*\d+([.]\d+)?|\d+([.]\d+)?\s*(-?\s*\d+([.]\d+)?\s*)?)$/m';
$str = '2.5
1-15.5
>10
>12.54
<75
# Works also on
>46
12 -15.2
>14.3
5 - 10
1.5 - 10.3
< 10
# refuse invalid
< 10.2.
1 - ..
< 10 > 10
1- 1 -1';
preg_match_all($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