@bazbt3 You might get some use out of:
- Debuggex [debuggex.com]: Draws the state machine corresponding to your regex, as well as having a library of sample text of various sorts to pitch it at.
- RegExr [regexr.com]: A workbench of sorts, it has mouse-over tooltips to explain what each chunk of the expression notation does, which can help you see how to visually break apart and also how to build expressions.