- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- preg_match_all: documentation ( source)
<?php
$s = 'group1 name=Elisa group2 name=John group3 name=Blah';
$r = '';
preg_match_all('~(group\d) (?:name=(\w*))~',$s,$matches,PREG_SET_ORDER);
var_dump($matches);
echo "----------DEFAULT------\n";
preg_match_all('~(group\d) (?:name=(\w*))~',$s,$matches);
var_dump($matches);