$re = '/(?:SELECT\s++(?=(?:[#\w,`.]++\s++)+)|(?!^)\G\s*+,\s*+(?:`?+\s*+[#\w]++\s*+`?+\s*+\.\s*+)?+`?+\s*+)(\w++)`?+(?:\s++as\s++[^,\s]++)?+/i';
$str = 'SELECT columnA, columnB as foo, table.column8, table.column3 as foo,
`column7`, `column4` as foo, `table`.`columnZ`, `#__table`.`columnF` as foo FROM datable where
Select column1, column2 From table
select column0 from table';
preg_match_all($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