$re = '/^[a-zA-Z0-9]+([\-]?)+([\._]?[a-zA-Z0-9\-])+([\._]?)*([a-zA-Z0-9])@[a-zA-Z0-9\-]([\._]?[a-zA-Z0-9\-])*(\.\w{2,3})+$/';
$str = 'i_s-.o.--m_e@gmail.com';
preg_match($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