$re = '/^-?(0?|(([1-9]{1}\d{0,2})(,\d{1,3})*|[1-9]+\d*))(\.(0{1}|\d*[1-9]{1})(e(0|[1-9]{1}\d*))?)?$/';
$str = '12.4e1200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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