Expression: /\{[a-z]*\:[a-zA-Z\_]* (\"([^\"]*)\" ?)+\}/ Needs to match: {foo:bar "var1" "var2" "var3"} Match array needs to look like: [0] = var1 var2 var3 [1] = var1 [2] = var2 [3] = var3 However the array shows up as this: [0] = var1 var2 var3 [1] = "var3" [2] = var3