$re = '/^\s*(add|and|nor|or|sub)\s*(\$[a-z0-9]{2,4}),\s*(\$[a-z0-9]{2,4}),\s*(\$[a-z0-9]{2,4})\s*$/m';
$str = 'add $t3,$s3,$s5
add $t3,$s3,$s5
add $v0,$t0,$t0
add $v0,$t0,$t0
and $t2,$t3,$t4
and $t2,$t3,$t4
nor $s0,$s5,$s2
nor $s0,$s5,$s2
or $s0,$s0,$s1
or $s0,$s0,$s1
or $s0,$s2,$s5
or $s0,$s2,$s5
sub $s3,$t0,$t1
sub $s3,$t0,$t1
sub $t0,$zero,$t1
sub $t0,$zero,$t1
sub $t1,$t4,$t8
sub $t1,$t4,$t8';
preg_match_all($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