$re = '/[+-]?(((\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)[+-])?((\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)i|i(\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)|i)|(\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)?e\^(\([+-]?|[+-]?\()((\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)i|i(\d+\.\d*|\d*\.\d+|\d+)|i)\))/m';
$str = '+5.6+7i,-.004+2.5i,6.-i,
i,e^-(5i),.02e^(-2.3i),7e^(i)';
preg_match_all($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