$re = '/(?(DEFINE)
(?# var )
(?<var>[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][\w\x7f-\xff]*)
(?# val )
(?<val>(?&call)|(?&str)|(?&num)|(?&bool))
(?<call>\$\{CALL\s+[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][\w\x7f-\xff]*\s*\})
(?<str>"[^"]*"|\'[^\']*\')
(?<num>\d+)
(?<bool>(?i)(?:false|true)(?-i))
)
((?(?=no(?8)\S)no|yes))
(\${(?P<type>VAR)\s+((?&var))\s*\=\s*((?&val))\s*\})(\S)?/sx';
$str = '
${VAR foo="What"}x
${VAR foo="What"}
yes${VAR foo="What"}
no${VAR foo="What"}x
';
preg_match_all($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