pcre_copy_substring (3)

#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);

This is a convenience function for extracting a captured substring into a given buffer. The arguments are:

  subject       Subject that has been successfully matched
  ovector       Offset vector that pcre[16|32]_exec() used
  stringcount   Value returned by pcre[16|32]_exec()
  stringnumber  Number of the required substring
  buffer        Buffer to receive the string
  buffersize    Size of buffer

The yield is the length of the string, PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY if the buffer was too small, or PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING if the string number is invalid.

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.