$re = '/\[(?<time>(?:[\d]+\:[\d]+:[\d]+)\s+(?:AM|PM))(?:\s+\|\s+\w+\s+(?<edited>(?:[\d]+\:[\d]+:[\d]+)\s+(?:AM|PM)))?\]\s+(?<author>\w+)\:\s+(?<message>[\w\s,.]+)/m';
$str = '[9:14:51 AM] Jeff: If you could just do me a favoure and list all these concerns and in a mail and if you have any ideas that you might want to implement so that I can get everybodys notes.
[9:14:56 AM] Timmy: in terms of websites or domains or DNSs I have no clue about setup
[9:15:19 AM | Edited 9:15:25 AM] Jeff: That, I will get Sam and Frodo involved in
[9:16:01 AM] Jeff: I am stepping out quickly';
preg_match_all($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