$re = '/((?<IPv4_dec_octet>[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3,3}(?<IPv4_dec_octet_end>[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])/';
$str = '1.2.256.2';
preg_match_all($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