Online PHP editor | output for u97Im

<?php $string = 'My Interests:379{Commercial:0,Consumer:1,Wholesale Reseller:2},Test Group:1234{Test One:1,Test 2:2}'; $regex = '(?<group_name>[a-zA-Z0-9 _]+):(?<group_id>[0-9]+)(?={)|(?<=[{,])(?<option_name>[^:]+):(?<option_id>[^,}]+)(?=[,}])'; preg_match_all("/$regex/", $string, $matches); //print_r($matches); $groups = array_combine(array_filter($matches['group_name']), array_filter($matches['group_id'], function ($v) { return $v !== '';})); $options = array_combine(array_filter($matches['option_name']), array_filter($matches['option_id'], function ($v) { return $v !== '';})); print_r($groups); print_r($options); $output = array(); for ($i = 0; $i < count($matches['group_name']); $i++) { if ($matches['group_name'][$i] != '') { // new group $this_group = $matches['group_name'][$i]; $output[$this_group] = array('id' => $matches['group_id'][$i]); } else { // option for this group $output[$this_group]['options'][$matches['option_name'][$i]] = $matches['option_id'][$i]; } } print_r($output); $output = array(); $this_group = -1; for ($i = 0; $i < count($matches['group_name']); $i++) { if ($matches['group_name'][$i] != '') { // new group $this_group++; $output[$this_group] = array('name' => $matches['group_name'][$i], 'id' => $matches['group_id'][$i]); } else { // option for this group $output[$this_group]['options'][$matches['option_name'][$i]] = $matches['option_id'][$i]; } } print_r($output);