The regular expression: (?-imsx:^(\s^+)MVA) 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 and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ^+ the beginning of the string (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MVA 'MVA' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------