$re = '/\bcat=(?:\d+,)*(8(?!\d),?)/';
$str = '?view=list&cat=3,1,8,18&sort=asc
?view=list&cat=8,18&sort=asc
?view=list&cat=8&sort=asc
?view=list&cat=3,1,8,18,8&sort=asc
?view=list&cat=3,1,8&sort=asc';
preg_match_all($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