Preg_match_all returning array within array?

Question

I am trying to get the information out of this array, but for some reason it is nesting everything into $matches[0].

<?

$file = shell_exec('pdf2txt.py docs/April.pdf');

preg_match_all('/.../',$file,&$matches);
print_r($matches)

?>

Is this working as intended? Is there a way to put this in an array of depth 1?

EDIT:

This is the RegEx:

([A-Z][a-z]+\s){1,5}\s?[^a-zA-Z\d\s:,.\'\"]\s?[A-Za-z+\W]+\s[\d]{1,2}\s[A-Z][a-z]+\s[\d]{4}

Answer 1

preg_match_all() always returns an array (if successful, otherwise you get an empty array) where index 0 contains an array with an element for each entire match, and the other indexes become the capturing groups, with an internal array for each match.

This might be easier to understand...

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    string(12) "entire match"
    [1]=>
    string(32) "entire match matched second time"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    string(15) "capturing group"
    [1]=>
    string(35) "capturing group matched second time"
  }
}