---
name: "pcre_get_stringnumber"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "pcre"
version: "8.45-5"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pcre_get_stringnumber"
---

# pcre\_get\_stringnumber(3)

Perl-compatible regular expressions

## NAME

PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<pcre.h\>**

```
int pcre_get_stringnumber(const pcre *code,
     const char *name);

int pcre16_get_stringnumber(const pcre16 *code,
     PCRE_SPTR16 name);

int pcre32_get_stringnumber(const pcre32 *code,
     PCRE_SPTR32 name);
```

## DESCRIPTION

This convenience function finds the number of a named substring capturing parenthesis in a compiled pattern. Its arguments are:

  *code*    Compiled regular expression\
   *name*    Name whose number is required

The yield of the function is the number of the parenthesis if the name is found, or PCRE\_ERROR\_NOSUBSTRING otherwise. When duplicate names are allowed (PCRE\_DUPNAMES is set), it is not defined which of the numbers is returned by **pcre\[16\|32\]\_get\_stringnumber()**. You can obtain the complete list by calling **pcre\[16\|32\]\_get\_stringtable\_entries()**.

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.