$re = '`BBB((?:B(?:B(?:[^B])|[^B])|[^B])*?)EEE`m';
$str = 'BBB foo BBB bar EEE
BBB bar EEE baz EEE
BBB foo BBB bar EEE baz EEE
BBBB EEEE
BBBBB EEEE
BBBBBB EEEE
BBBB EEEEE
BBBBB EEEEE
BBBBBB EEEEE
BBBB EEEEEE
BBBBB EEEEEE
BBBBBB EEEEEE';
preg_match_all($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