FcPatternGet-Type(3)

💅 FcPatternGet-Type(3) — bestie edition

ok so real talk: we're deep in fontconfig land today (yes, the whole FcPatternGet-Type(3) manual page, no crumbs left behind) and this one is genuinely one of my faves because it's all about getting typed values out of a pattern and not having your whole afternoon ruined by a type mismatch. slay. 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

FcPatternGetInteger, FcPatternGetDouble, FcPatternGetString, FcPatternGetMatrix, FcPatternGetCharSet, FcPatternGetBool, FcPatternGetFTFace, FcPatternGetLangSet, FcPatternGetRange — literally just return a typed value from a pattern, that's the whole vibe 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

first things first, you gotta include the header, no cap:

#include <fontconfig/fontconfig.h>

and here's the whole squad, one by one, each in its own lil code block so nothing gets squished 😌

FcResult FcPatternGetInteger (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, int *i);

FcResult FcPatternGetDouble (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, double *d);

FcResult FcPatternGetString (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcChar8 **s);

FcResult FcPatternGetMatrix (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcMatrix **s);

FcResult FcPatternGetCharSet (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcCharSet **c);

FcResult FcPatternGetBool (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcBool *b);

FcResult FcPatternGetFTFace (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FT_Face *f);

FcResult FcPatternGetLangSet (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcLangSet **l);

FcResult FcPatternGetRange (FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n, FcRange **r);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okok so here's the tea ☕ — these are convenience functions. what do they do? they call FcPatternGet and then they check that the data that came back is actually the type you asked for. like a vibe check, but for data. 🔥

if the type isn't what you expected, they return FcResultTypeMismatch. not dramatic, just honest. 💀

important, bestie, do not skip this: these functions (exactly like FcPatternGet) do not make a copy of any data structure referenced by the return value. so the pointer you get back is pointing at the real thing — no duplicates, no safety net. handle with care 🙈

you should use these in preference to FcPatternGet so you get compile-time typechecking. that's the whole point, it's giving safety goggles but make it cute 🥽✨

also, heads up so you're not confused later: FcPatternGetRange is available since 2.11.91. iykyk. 🎀

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💜 sign-off 💜

that's the page, bestie! this whole thing ships with Fontconfig 2.17.0, dated 27 June 2025. go forth and typecheck your patterns, you absolute icon 👑🌈⭐