$re = '/(?|
(\[) (?= \h* x \h* ] ) | (?<= \[ ) \h* x \h* (])
)
|
(?:
(?<= \[ ) \h* (x) (?= \h* ] )
)/mx';
$str = 'Yes: [x]
Yes: [ x]
Yes: [x ]
Yes: [ x ]
No: [x
No: x]
';
preg_match_all($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