$re = '/[<]/';
$str = '<h3>This is sample HTML Coding</h3>
<pre><code>
<html>
<body>
Hello World
</body>
</html>
</code></pre>
<h3>This is another sample HTML Coding</h3>
<pre><code>
<html>
<body>
Another Hello World
</body>
</html>
</code></pre>
';
preg_match_all($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