PHP Regex the nested section based on defined parent

I am trying to match a nested content section of the config based on the alias.

I have the base prototype working for matching single aliases over here: https://regex101.com/r/1vwKsx/1 (section correctly matched to: 'template_path_stack' =>)

HOWEVER, I want to select a section (which is re-used in the file) based on the section container. In the link above, I need to only match the section which is inside: controllers => factories.

The problem is that the regex matches both (the correct one and the one from the outside). https://regex101.com/r/IrV0SN/1

Current regex:

('factories' => )([((?>[^[]]++|(?2))*)])

Answer

You may add an obligatory prefix to the regex and discard the matched text using K operator:

'controllers' => [s*K('factories' => )([((?>[^][]++|(?2))*)])

See the regex demo.

Here,

• 'controllers' => [ – a 'controllers' => [ text
• s* – zero or more whitespaces
• K – discards the text matched so far from the current overall match memory buffer.