$re = '/(?<file>(?<subject>\d{4})_(?<COND>[A-Z]{2})_(?<EOEC>EO|EC)_?(?<inx>\d)?)(?<ext>\.\w{3,4})/';
$str = '0001_BL_EC.mat
1_BL_EC.mat
1231_NF_EO.mat
1231_NF_EO_1.mat
S0001_NF_EO_Matrix';
preg_match_all($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