- preg_match: documentation ( source)
- print_r: documentation ( source)
<?php
$string = 'entity:node/4d90bd7c-2669-4d76-b808-9ad839241dd8';
preg_match('^entity\//[a-f0-9]{8}\-[a-f0-9]{4}\-4[a-f0-9]{3}\-(8|9|a|b)[a-f0-9]{3}\-[a-f0-9]{12}/', $string, $m);
print_r($m);