perl -MYAPE::Regex::Explain -e 'print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new(qr/^[ABC]+$/)->explain;' The regular expression: (?-imsx:^[ABC]+$) 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [ABC]+ any character of: 'A', 'B', 'C' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ before an optional \n, and the end of the string ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------