FUNCTION::MATCHED(3stap)

💖 FUNCTION::MATCHED(3stap) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the FUNCTION::MATCHED(3stap) page, straight out of the A collection of standard strin manual (yes the title's cut off like that, we love a mystery ✨). this is your lil guide to grabbing pieces of a regex match, and ngl it's giving main character energy.

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✨ NAME ✨

function::matched — Return a given matched subexpression. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

matched:string(n:long)

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• n — the index of the subexpression you wanna get back. and like, 0 is special: it corresponds to the entire regular expression. yes, the whole thing. the moment. the icon. 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what this does: it returns the content of the n'th subexpression of the last successful use of the =~ regex matching operator. that's the whole vibe. 🫶

if that n'th subexpression was not matched (e.g. due to alternation), you get an empty string back. no drama, just an empty lil string. 🌈

but listen — it throws an error if the last use of =~ was a failed match, or if there are fewer than n subexpressions present in the original regexp. so like, mind your indices, fr fr. 😭

lowkey important: failed =~ + this function = error. not a vibe. check your match first, bestie. 💀

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• tapset::regex(3stap)

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and that's the whole page, periodt. 🧚 this was the SystemTap Tapset Reference, Ver, dated September 2026 — thanks for coming to my ted talk, ily, go match some subexpressions responsibly 💜🍓