c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use YAPE::Regex::Explain; ;; my $rx = qr{www.([A-Z a-z 0-9]+.{3}).}x; ;; print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new($rx)->explain; " The regular expression: (?x-ims:www.([A-Z a-z 0-9]+.{3}).) matches as follows: NODE EXPLANATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?x-ims: group, but do not capture (disregarding whitespace and comments) (case-sensitive) (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not matching \n): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- www 'www' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- . any character except \n ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [A-Z a-z 0-9]+ any character of: 'A' to 'Z', ' ', 'a' to 'z', ' ', '0' to '9' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- .{3} any character except \n (3 times) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- . any character except \n ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------