$re = '/RDATE(?:(?:;(?<value_param>VALUE=(?<value_param_type>DATE-TIME|DATE|PERIOD)))|;(?<tzid_param>TZID=(?<tzid_param_tz>[\w\/-]+))|;(?:(?!VALUE|TZID)\w+=[a-zA-Z0-9_\-\/]+))+:(?<value>(?:.*))/';
$str = 'RDATE;FAKE=fake;VALUE=DATE-TIME;TZID=America/New_York:19970714T083000';
preg_match($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