$re = '/(?:{|(?!^)\G)\s*\K(<[^>]+>|(?<PlaceholderValue>[^<>}]+)\b)/';
$str = 'Is this a { <strong> Versioned placeholder </strong> } file?
Is this a <strong> { Versioned placeholder } </strong> file?';
preg_match_all($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