^ # start-of-string
(?=.*[0-9]) # a digit must occur at least once
(?=.*[a-z]) # a lower case letter must occur at least once
(?=.*[A-Z]) # an upper case letter must occur at least once
(?=.*[@#$%^&+=]) # a special character must occur at least once
(?=S+$) # no whitespace allowed in the entire string
.{8,} # anything, at least eight places though
$ # end-of-string