PCRE_COPY_SUBSTRING(3)

💖 PCRE_COPY_SUBSTRING 💖

okay bestie, so this one lives in the Library Functions Manual, and it's page PCRE_COPY_SUBSTRING(3) — yes it's giving "library functions" energy, we love that for it. sit down, hydrate, we're doing substring extraction 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

PCRE — Perl-compatible regular expressions. that's the whole vibe. no cap. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

like, here's the actual shape of it, don't @ me, this is verbatim:

#include <pcre.h>

int pcre_copy_substring(const char *subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber, char *buffer,
     int buffersize);

int pcre16_copy_substring(PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber, PCRE_UCHAR16 *buffer,
     int buffersize);

int pcre32_copy_substring(PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector,
     int stringcount, int stringnumber, PCRE_UCHAR32 *buffer,
     int buffersize);

three versions, three widths, one iconique little function. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit — pick your fighter 🦋

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so basically, this is a convenience function for extracting a captured substring into a given buffer. it's the "just put the thing in the buffer already" function. the way it just does that? obsessed. ✨

the arguments are, and I'm gonna be so real with you:

• subject — subject that has been successfully matched. like, the string you already ran through and it hit. 🎯
• ovector — the offset vector that pcre[16|32]_exec() used. that's the receipts. 🧾
• stringcount — value returned by pcre[16|32]_exec(). yes, you gotta hand it back. it said what it said.
• stringnumber — number of the required substring. which one you want, bestie. be specific.
• buffer — buffer to receive the string. it's the lil container, the tote bag of it all 👜
• buffersize — size of buffer. and you better get this right, I'm just saying 🙈

⭐ the yield, aka what you get back ⭐

• the length of the string — slay, that's your win 💖
• PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY — if the buffer was too small. tragic. the buffer simply could not. 😭
• PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING — if the string number is invalid. you asked for a substring that does not exist, bestie. it's giving void. 💀

fr fr: if your buffer is too small you get PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY, not a truncated vibe. size it correctly or perish (gently). 🫶

🌈 where to go next 🌈

there is 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, iykyk 📚✨

and that's the whole page, bestie. this was PCRE 8.30, dated 24 June 2012 — yeah she's an elder but she still ate. mwah 💅👑