GPC REFERENCE: SetLength

1 Jun 1998

      Hello, folks!

Here is a sketch for a `SetLength' reference section.

Dose somebody know whether this
...
@samp{SetLength} is a Borland Delphi 1.0 extension.
is really true?

Yours,

    Peter

-- 
Peter Gerwinski, Essen, Germany, http://home.pages.de/~Peter.Gerwinski/
Maintainer GNU Pascal - http://home.pages.de/~GNU-Pascal/ - gpc-980511
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@node SetLength
@unnumberedsec SetLength
@cindex SetLength

@unnumberedsubsec Syntax

@smallexample
  Procedure SetLength ( Var S: String; NewLength: Integer );
@end smallexample

@unnumberedsubsec Description

@samp{SetLength} explicitly assigns a new length @samp{NewLength} to the
string parameter @code{S}.  The contents of the string is @emph{not} changed;
if the operation increases the length of the string, the characters appended
at the end are @emph{undefined}.

If you want to use @samp{SetLength}, please enable ``extended syntax''
(@samp{--extended-syntax} or @samp{(*$X+*)}).

@unnumberedsubsec Standards

@samp{SetLength} is a Borland Delphi 1.0 extension.

@unnumberedsubsec Example

@example
  Program TestSetLength;

  (*$X+*)  (* Enable "dangerous" features *)

  Var
    S: String ( 26 );

  begin
    S:= 'Hello, world!';
    SetLength ( S, length ( 'Hello' ) );
    writeln ( S );                                     (* 'Hello' *)
    SetLength ( S, 26 );
    writeln ( S );               (* 'Hello, world!(%$@Â§"!"Â§$Â§"$'  *)
                          (* undefined characters ^^^^^^^^^^^^^   *)

    SetLength ( S, 42 );  (* The overflow is *not* (yet) detected *)
    writeln ( S );        (* This might cause a runtime error.    *)
  end.
@end example

@unnumberedsubsec See also

@ref{@ref{length}, @ref{String}, @ref{SetType}.

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