$re = '/how to/m';
$str = '<li><a href="xxx.html" title="xxx">xxx (22)</a></li>
<li><a href="yyy.html" title="yyy">yyy (21)</a></li>
<li><a href="zzz.html" title="zzz">zzz (13)</a></li>
<li><a href="xxx.html" title="xxx">xxx (23)</a></li>
<li><a href="yyy.html" title="yyy">yyy (24)</a></li>
<li><a href="zzz.html" title="zzz">zzz (15)</a></li>
So, this a menu in html. I need to match in order those numbers from the end. Suppose the last line, `<li><a href="ccc.html" title="ccc">ccc (7)</a></li>` instead of (7) I would have (6). The regex formula should match this row.
So, the order of the numbers must be taken into account, and regex formula should match only where the number does not match the default number.';
preg_match_all($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