PCRE_GET_SUBSTRING(3)

✨ PCRE_GET_SUBSTRING ✨

okay bestie, welcome to PCRE_GET_SUBSTRING(3) 💖 this one lives in the Library Functions Manual and it's the little glow-up of the PCRE family — aka Perl-compatible regular expressions 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <pcre.h>

int pcre_get_substring(const char *subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber,
     const char **stringptr);

int pcre16_get_substring(PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber,
     PCRE_SPTR16 *stringptr);

int pcre32_get_substring(PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber,
     PCRE_SPTR32 *stringptr);

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so this is a convenience function for extracting a captured substring 💅 like, you already matched, you already got your capture, and now you just want the actual text out of it. no cap, that's the whole vibe.

the arguments are, in order:

• subject — the subject that has been successfully matched ✨
• ovector — the offset vector that pcre[16|32]_exec() used 👑
• stringcount — the value returned by pcre[16|32]_exec() 🌈
• stringnumber — the number of the required substring 🍓
• stringptr — where to put the string pointer 🎀

the memory the substring gets placed in? that's obtained by calling pcre[16|32]_malloc() 🫶 and listen, when you're done with it, the convenience function pcre[16|32]_free_substring() can be used to free it. free your girl, she deserves it 💖

the yield of the function — the return, the moment of truth — is the length of the substring ⭐ OR PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY if sufficient memory could not be obtained 😭 OR PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING if the string number is invalid 💀

fr fr: invalid string number gets you PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING, and not having enough memory gets you PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY. those are the two ways this can say "no bestie" 🙈

also there's a complete description of the PCRE native API in the pcreapi page, and a description of the POSIX API in the pcreposix page — go read those if you want the full lore 📚

mwah 💜 that's the page!! this one's from PCRE 8.30, dated 24 June 2012, and the manual name is PCRE_GET_SUBSTRING(3) — slay, go capture something iconic bestie ✨👑