diff --git a/examples/example.rb b/examples/example.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af0fcdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/example.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,234 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+load '../lib/regexify.rb'
+
+# monkey patch Regexify to add 'to_s' method
+
+class Regexify
+	public
+  		def to_s
+    		@str
+    	end
+end
+
+class RegexifyWithOptions < Regexify
+
+	@options = nil
+	
+	public
+	
+		def options
+			@options
+		end
+		
+		def options=(opt)
+			raise Regexify::Error.new("Illegal regex modifier string") \
+  							unless opt.kind_of?(NilClass) || \
+  								   (opt.kind_of?(String) && opt.match?(/[ixm]/))
+  			@options = opt
+  		end
+		
+		def initialize(opt = nil)
+			super()
+  			self.options = opt
+		end
+		
+		# Converts Regexify object to Regexp
+  		def regex
+  			opts = 0
+  			unless @options.nil?
+  				@options = squeeze(@options)
+  				opts |= Regexp::IGNORECASE if @options.match?(/i/)
+				opts |= Regexp::EXTENDED if @options.match?(/x/)
+				opts |= Regexp::MULTILINE if @options.match?(/m/)
+  			end
+  			Regexp.new(@str, opts)
+  		end
+
+	protected
+	
+		def squeeze(str)
+			uniqs = ''
+    			str.sub(/\s+/,'').each_char { |s| uniqs += s if !uniqs.include?(s) }
+    			return uniqs.downcase
+		end
+end
+
+class RegexifyWithAnchor < Regexify
+
+	public
+	
+		def initialize
+			super
+		end
+
+# Insert an anchor:
+#
+# \A - Matches beginning of string.
+# \Z - Matches end of string. If string ends with a newline, it matches just
+#        before newline
+# \z - Matches end of string
+# \G - Matches point where last match finished
+# \b - Matches word boundaries when outside brackets; backspace (0x08) when
+#        inside brackets
+# \B - Matches non-word boundaries
+		
+		def anchor(a)
+			raise Regexify::Error.new("Illegal anchor.") \
+								unless a.length == 1 && a.match?(/[AZzGbB]/)	
+			@str += "\\#{a}"
+			self
+		end 
+				
+# (?=pat) - Positive lookahead assertion: ensures that the following characters
+#        match pat, but doesn't include those characters in the matched text
+
+		def pos_look_ahead(pat)
+			@str += "\(\?=#{pat}\)"
+			self
+		end
+		
+# (?!pat) - Negative lookahead assertion: ensures that the following characters
+#        do not match pat, but doesn't include those characters in the
+#        matched text
+
+		def neg_look_ahead(pat)
+			@str += "\(\?!#{pat}\)"
+			self
+		end
+
+# (?<=pat) - Positive lookbehind assertion: ensures that the preceding 
+#        characters match pat, but doesn't include those characters in the
+#        matched text
+
+		def pos_look_behind(pat)
+			@str += "\(\?<=#{pat}\)"
+			self
+		end
+
+# (?<!pat) - Negative lookbehind assertion: ensures that the preceding
+#        characters do not match pat, but doesn't include those characters in 
+#        the matched text
+
+		def neg_look_behind(pat)
+			@str += "\(\?<!#{pat}\)"
+			self
+		end
+end
+
+class RegexifyANSI < Regexify
+
+	public
+	
+		def initialize
+			super
+			
+# /[[:alnum:]]/ - Alphabetic and numeric character
+# /[[:alpha:]]/ - Alphabetic character
+# /[[:blank:]]/ - Space or tab
+# /[[:cntrl:]]/ - Control character
+# /[[:digit:]]/ - Digit
+# /[[:graph:]]/ - Non-blank character (excludes spaces, control characters, 
+#                   and similar)
+# /[[:lower:]]/ - Lowercase alphabetical character
+# /[[:print:]]/ - Like [:graph:], but includes the space character
+# /[[:punct:]]/ - Punctuation character
+# /[[:space:]]/ - Whitespace character ([:blank:], newline, CR, etc.)
+# /[[:upper:]]/ - Uppercase alphabetical
+# /[[:xdigit:]]/ - Digit allowed in a hexadecimal number (i.e., 0-9a-fA-F)
+
+# redefinitions
+#
+			@patterns[:number] = '[[:digit:]]'
+			@patterns[:uppercase] = '[[:upper:]]'
+    			@patterns[:lowercase] = '[[:lower:]]'
+    			@patterns[:letter] = '[[:alpha:]]'
+    			@patterns[:alphanumeric] = '[[:alnum:]]'
+    			@patterns[:whitespace] = '[[:space:]]'
+
+# new patterns
+#
+			@patterns[:hexdigit] = '[[:xdigit:]]'
+			@patterns[:punctuation] = '[[:punct:]]'
+			@patterns[:control] = '[[:cntrl:]]'
+			
+		end
+
+end
+
+puts ""
+puts "Regexify"
+puts ""
+
+puts "\t" + Regexify.new
+  .begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .end_with('!').to_s
+  
+puts ""
+puts "RegexifyWithOptions"
+puts ""
+
+t = RegexifyWithOptions.new
+puts "\t1. " + "Options = nil"
+puts "\t   " + t.begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .end_with('!').regex.to_s
+puts ""
+t = RegexifyWithOptions.new('im')
+puts "\t2. " + "Options = #{t.options}"
+puts "\t   " + t.begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .end_with('!').regex.to_s
+puts ""
+t = RegexifyWithOptions.new('x')
+puts "\t3. " + "Options = #{t.options}"
+puts "\t   " + t.begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .end_with('!').regex.to_s
+puts ""
+begin
+	t = RegexifyWithOptions.new('foo')
+rescue Regexify::Error => e1
+	puts "\t4. " + "Regexify::Error => #{e1}"
+end
+puts ""
+begin
+	t = RegexifyWithOptions.new(1)
+rescue Regexify::Error => e2
+	puts "\t5. " + "Regexify::Error => #{e2}"
+end
+
+  
+puts ""
+puts "RegexifyWithAnchor"
+puts ""
+
+puts "\t" + RegexifyWithAnchor.new
+  .begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .anchor('b')
+  .pos_look_ahead("boy")
+  .anchor('Z')
+  .neg_look_behind("howdy")
+  .end_with('!').to_s
+
+puts ""
+puts "RegexifyANSI"
+puts ""
+
+puts "\t" + RegexifyANSI.new
+  .begin_with(:uppercase, exactly: 3)
+  .then(:number, '-', range: [2,10])
+  .not(:alphanumeric, exactly:1)
+  .then(:hexdigit)
+  .then(:punctuation)
+  .end_with('!').to_s
+
+puts ""
+
diff --git a/lib/regexify.rb b/lib/regexify.rb
index 956669d..78301bb 100644
--- a/lib/regexify.rb
+++ b/lib/regexify.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 # Where the regex magic happens
 class Regexify
 
+  public
+  
   # Class to raise errors
   class Error < StandardError; end
 
+  private
+  
   # a small list of popular regex tokens that are available with regexify
   PATTERNS = {
     number: '0-9',
@@ -20,9 +24,19 @@ class Error < StandardError; end
   # chars that needs to be escaped in a regex
   ESCAPED_CHARS = %w(* . ? ^ + $ | ( ) [ ] { } \\)
 
+  protected
+  
+  # instance variables
+  @str = nil
+  @patterns = nil
+  @complete = nil
+    
+  public
+  
   # default constructor
   def initialize
     @str = ""
+    @patterns = PATTERNS
     @complete = false
   end
 
@@ -99,8 +113,8 @@ def parse(args, exactly: nil, range: nil)
   def extract_regex(arg)
     regex_str = ""
     if arg.is_a? Symbol
-      raise Regexify::Error.new('symbol not defined in patterns') unless PATTERNS.key?(arg)
-      PATTERNS[arg]
+      raise Regexify::Error.new('symbol not defined in patterns') unless @patterns.key?(arg)
+      @patterns[arg]
     else
       escape(arg)
     end
@@ -142,4 +156,5 @@ def contains_symbols?(args)
     end
     return false
   end
+  
 end