$re = '/\\\\starttable[\s\S]*?\HL[\s\S]*?\HL/';
$str = '\\starttable[|lp(0.08\\textwidth)|lp(0.35\\textwidth)|lp(0.48\\textwidth)|lp(0.08\\textwidth)|]
\\HL
\\NC Req. Id
\\NC Description
\\NC Test Scenario
\\NC Result
\\NC\\AR
\\HL
\\NC TAF-89
\\NC Trigger test start - from jig
\\NC
\\NC Unavailable
\\NC\\AR
\\NC TAF-88
\\NC Trigger test start - using scanner
\\NC
\\NC Unavailable
\\NC\\AR
\\HL';
preg_match_all($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