$re = '/When: ([\w]{3}) ([\w]{3}) ([\d]{1,2}), ([\d]{4})/';
$str = 'When: Mon Oct 27, 2013 to Fri Nov 1, 2013
<br />
<br />Event Status: confirmed</content>';
preg_match($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