diff --git a/misc.go b/misc.go
index 2520b15..1206a57 100644
--- a/misc.go
+++ b/misc.go
@@ -5,7 +5,11 @@ import (
 	"unicode"
 )
 
-func dotCharacters() []rune { // Returns all possible characters represented by the dot metacharacter
+var whitespaceChars = []rune{' ', '\t', '\n'}
+var digitChars = []rune{'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'}
+var wordChars = []rune("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789_")
+
+func dotChars() []rune { // Returns all possible characters represented by the dot metacharacter - this is too tedious to define as a variable, which is why it is a function
 	start := 0x0020
 	end := 0x007E
 	to_return := make([]rune, (end-start)+1)