diff --git a/src/cxxopts.hpp b/src/cxxopts.hpp
index 7e3936a..8adef0f 100644
--- a/src/cxxopts.hpp
+++ b/src/cxxopts.hpp
@@ -1 +1,10 @@
 #include <regex>
+
+namespace cxxopts
+{
+  std::basic_regex<char> option_matcher
+    ("--([a-zA-Z][-_a-zA-Z]+)(=(.*))?|-([a-zA-Z]+)");
+
+  std::basic_regex<char> option_specifier
+    ("(([a-zA-Z]),)?([a-zA-Z][-_a-zA-Z]+)");
+}
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index 6f6a6f9..1faeee0 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -7,13 +7,12 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
   try
   {
 
-  std::basic_regex<char> options("--([a-zA-Z][-a-zA-Z]+)|-([a-zA-Z]+)");
   std::match_results<const char*> result;
 
   for (int i = 1; i < argc; ++i)
   {
     std::cout << "Argument " << i << std::endl;
-    std::regex_match(argv[i], result, options);
+    std::regex_match(argv[i], result, cxxopts::option_matcher);
     std::cout << "empty = " << result.empty() << std::endl;
     std::cout << "size = " << result.size() << std::endl;