note Paladin No, it's doing exactly as it states. @ matches <code>\W</code> and the start of the string also "matches" <code>\W</code>, so there is no <code>\b</code> between them. Same goes for the string starting with +. In the third example, t matches <code>\w</code> so the \b matches the space between the start of the string (<code>\W</code>) and the t (<code>\w</code>) 425413 425413