The regular expression: (?-imsx:Name:\s+([[:alpha:] ]+?)\s+Age:\s+(\d+)) 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): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: 'Name:' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s+ whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [[:alpha:] ]+? any character of: letters, ' ' (1 or more times (matching the least amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s+ whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Age: 'Age:' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s+ whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \2: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \d+ digits (0-9) (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------