Why preg_split works only if the char # before the delimiter is 21 or less?

[tiggman]

Why preg_split works only if the char # before the delimiter is 21 or less?
example php code:
=============
[PHP]$right = "{Hello Im very aaaaaa {cool|not cool}}";
print $right."<br>";
$pattern = '/({(?:[^{}]+(?:"[^"]*"|\'[^\']*\')?)+})/';
$snip_array = preg_split($pattern, $right, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
print_r($snip_array);[/PHP]
============
If I change [PHP]$right = "{Hello Im very aaaaa {cool|not cool}}";[/PHP] the
above code works correctly. Is there a solution to this or am I doing something stupid?

Thanks,
Todd
[e-mail]