The regular expression: (?-imsx:Hi\s*) 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): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi 'Hi' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s* whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (0 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------