$re = '/^(M{0,3})(C(?:D|M)|D?C{0,3})(X(?:L|C)|L?X{0,3})(I(?:V|X)|V?I{0,3})$/';
$str = '';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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