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How to use procedural variables

Copy the text below and it will demonstrate the use of procedural variables, this is a fully working program. You don't even need to understand how it works. The syntax is pretty simple.

pascal
program Test;

{$mode objfpc}{$H+}
uses
  {$IFDEF UNIX}{$IFDEF UseCThreads}
  cthreads,
  {$ENDIF}{$ENDIF}
  Classes;

// Make the Types the type corresponds to a function signature
type
  TFuncNoArgsString = function(): String;
  TFuncOneArgsString = function(x: string): string;

// Example functions
function Hello: String;
begin
  Result := 'Hello There';
end;

function Woah(G: String): String;
begin
  Result := 'Woah ' + G;
end;

// Overloaded function takes the two types of function
// pointers created above
procedure Take(f: TFuncNoArgsString); overload;
begin
  WriteLn(f());
end;

procedure Take(f: TFuncOneArgsString); overload;
begin
  WriteLn(f('there!!!'));
end;

var
  ptr: Pointer;
  List: TList;
begin
  // the "@" symbol turns the variable into a pointer.
  // This must be done in order pass a function as a
  // parameter.  This also demonstrates that pascal
  // keeps track of the pointer type so the overloading works!

  Take(@Hello);
  Take(@Woah);

  // Now put a function in an untyped pointer
  ptr := @Hello;
  // Type the pointer and call it all at the same time
  WriteLn(TFuncNoArgsString(ptr));
  // A TList Example
  List := TList.Create;
  List.Add(@Hello);
  WriteLn(TFuncNoArgsString(List[0]));
  ReadLn;
end.

With {$modeswitch classicprocvars+} the @-address-operator is not necessary to refer to methods. Also, if you are using the @-address-operator usage of {$typedaddress on} is advised in order to prevent programming mistakes.


From the Free Pascal wiki, page "How to use procedural variables", as it stood on 2020-02-17 after a change by Trev, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.

Revision 3, last changed by WikiArchive .