$re = '/^(?:(-?360(*ACCEPT))|(-?[1-3]?[0-9]?[0-9]?))°?\s?([0-5]?[0-9])?\'?\s?([0-5]?[0-9](?:.{1}[0-9])?)?"?$/m';
$str = '180° 1\' 3"
// Stop at 360°
360° 1\' 2"
-360° 1\' 2"
259° 59\' 59.9"
// Can\'t accept 2 digit precision decimal seconds.
259° 59\' 59.99"
// Negative angle
-45° 1\' 2"
// A little bit weird
00° 1\' 2"
00° 00\' 00.0"
// Whops! Something wrong here.
1° 2\' 599"
';
preg_match_all($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