>>> $a = "23wef32fdd2112"; => "23wef32fdd2112" >>> preg_match_all("/(?:(?P<some>[\d]+)|(?P<any>[a-z]+))/", $a, $matches) => 5 >>> $matches => [ 0 => [ "23", "wef", "32", "fdd", "2112", ], "some" => [ "23", "", "32", "", "2112", ], 1 => [ "23", "", "32", "", "2112", ], "any" => [ "", "wef", "", "fdd", "", ], 2 => [ "", "wef", "", "fdd", "", ], ] >>>