The regular expression: (?-imsx:\(([0-9]+\.[0-9]+)\),[0-9]+$) 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): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \( '(' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( group and capture to \1: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [0-9]+ any character of: '0' to '9' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \. '.' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [0-9]+ any character of: '0' to '9' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of \1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \) ')' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- , ',' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [0-9]+ any character of: '0' to '9' (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ before an optional \n, and the end of the string ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------