Nope.
If matches is provided, then it is filled with the results of search. $matches[0] will contain the text that matched the full pattern, $matches[1] will have the text that matched the first captured parenthesized subpattern, and so on.
Unless you wanted all the matches, sorry. In which case, you'd be best off using
preg_match_all().
Edit: Good Lord, this post has been a bit of a massacre.
EDITED: 12 Sep 2006 23:19 by ROWAN