$re = '/^(?:#)([A-Za-z0-9_](?:(?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|(?:(?!))){0,28}(?:[A-Za-z0-9_]))?)((?: #)([A-Za-z0-9_](?:(?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|(?:\.(?!\.))){0,28}(?:[A-Za-z0-9_]))?))*/m';
$str = '#foo #bar
#foo,#bar
#foo#bar
#foo bar
#foo,bar';
preg_match($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