PHP - Regex for beginner

/\(\d{5}\s[a-zA-Z][\w\s\-\/\.&]*\)/

\( For (

\d{5} For 5 digits

\s For A single whitespace character

[a-zA-Z] For A single letter character

[a-zA-Z] For A single letter character

[\w\s\-\/\.&]* For any number (0-infinity) of letter characters, whitespace, -, /, ., &

\) For )

Test page and PHP usage:

$pattern = '/\(\d{5}\s[a-zA-Z][\w\s\-\/\.&]*\)/m';

preg_match_all($pattern, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);

var_dump($matches);

If you want to capture information with capture groups, this pattern will work with Postal Code as Group 1, Name of the Town as Group 2, and District number as an optional Group 3.

/\((\d{5})\s([a-zA-Z][\w\s\-\.&]*)(?>\s\/(\d)\/*)*\)/

Edit:

By changing the character class from [a-zA-Z] to [a-zA-Z\x{00C0}-\x{017F}] you can match all accented characters as well. This changes the full expression to:

/\((\d{5})\s([a-zA-Z\x{00C0}-\x{017F}][\w\s\-\.&]*)(?>\s\/(\d)\/*)*\)/

You can change this range to whatever you want. The codes come from unicode Codes which can be found here. The range I have included goes from Latin-1 Supplement Uppercase Letters to Latin Extended-A European Latin

You might also make the pattern a bit more broader allowing any character in between the parenthesis for towns like for example Sainte-Mère-Église or École-Valentin.

Starting with french letters:

\(\d{5}\s[a-zA-ZàâäôéèëêïîçùûüÿæœÀÂÄÔÉÈËÊÏΟÇÙÛÜÆŒ][^()]*\)

Explanation

• \( Match (
• \d{5} Match 5 digits
• \s Match a single whitespace char
• [a-zA-ZàâäôéèëêïîçùûüÿæœÀÂÄÔÉÈËÊÏΟÇÙÛÜÆŒ] Match a single char in the character class
• [^()]* Optionally match any character other than ( and )
• \) Match )

See a regex demo.

Or starting with any letter from any language:

\(\d{5}\s\p{L}[^()]*\)

Regex demo