Q:\>perl -MYAPE::Regex::Explain -we "print for YAPE::Regex::Explain->new(shift)->explain;" "\s\r\n\t" The regular expression: (?-imsx:\s\r\n\t) 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): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \r '\r' (carriage return) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \n '\n' (newline) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \t '\t' (tab) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------