The regular expression: (?m-isx:^\s*(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s*$) matches as follows: NODE EXPLANATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?m-isx: group, but do not capture (with ^ and $ matching start and end of line) (case- sensitive) (with . not matching \n) (matching whitespace and # normally): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ^ the beginning of a "line" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s* whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (0 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \S+ non-whitespace (all but \n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s+ whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \2: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \S+ non-whitespace (all but \n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s* whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (0 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ before an optional \n, and the end of a "line" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------