PHP preg_match bible scripture format

Question

I am struggling with building a regular expression for parsing this kind of strings (bible scriptures):

  \'John 14:16–17, 25–26\'
  \'John 14:16–17\'
  \'Jo         


        

Answer 1

([1|2|3]?([i|I]+)?(\s?)\w+(\s+?))((\d+)?(,?)(\s?)(\d+))+(:?)((\d+)?([\-–]\d+)?(,(\s?)\d+[\-–]\d+)?)?

works for almost every book...