$re = '/S\d{8}/';
$str = '[2] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000002
[3] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000003
[4] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000004
[5] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000005
[6] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000006
[7] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000007
[8] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000008
[9] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000009
[10] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000010
[11] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000011
[12] http://statistics.gov.scot/id/statistical-geography/S02000012';
preg_match_all($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