$ perl -e 'use YAPE::Regex::Explain;print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new("^(?:https?|ftp):")->explain;' The regular expression: (?-imsx:^(?:https?|ftp):) 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): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ^ the beginning of the string ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?: group, but do not capture: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http 'http' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- s? 's' (optional (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | OR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ftp 'ftp' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ---------------------------------------------------------------------- : ':' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------