The regular expression: (?-imsx:(?<=B)(-+)) matches as follows: NODE EXPLANATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?-imsx: group, but do not capture (case-sensitive) (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not matching \n) (matching whitespace and # normally): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?<= look behind to see if there is: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B 'B' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of look-behind ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -+ '-' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------