$re = '/^ *+([A-Za-z ]*[A-Za-z]) *+(\+\d+)?+ *+(?|,?+ *+\( *+(.*\S) *\) *|,?+ *+(.*\S) *)?$/m';
$str = 'John Smith , drink
John Smith
John Smith +1
John Smith (drink)
John Smith ( drink )
John Smith, drink
John Smith +1 , drink
John Smith +1 (drink)
John Smith +1, drink
John Smith +1 drink';
preg_match_all($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