String

│ Deutsch (de) │ English (en) │ español (es) │ français (fr) │ русский (ru) │

String is a type which may contain characters.

Alias

String is an alias for ShortString or AnsiString depending on the current compiler setting.

If compiler directive {$H} or compiler directive {$LongStrings} is on ( {$H+} or {$LongStrings ON} ), then a String type is the same as an AnsiString type, if not ( {$H-} or {$LongStrings OFF} ), it is a ShortString type. What String is an alias for can also be set by the -Sh command line option.

NOTE: The {$mode} compiler directive has an effect on the current setting for which type a String is an alias to. After the compiler mode is set to FPC, ObjFPC, MacPAS or TP, String will be an alias for ShortString. After the compiler mode is set to Delphi, String will be an alias for AnsiString. You can override the String setting of a particular mode by following the {$mode} directive with a compiler directive to set the String alias:

{$mode ObjFPC}   // String is an alias for ShortString
{$H+}            // String is now an alias for AnsiString

In the future there may be a compiler directive to set the String type to refer to a Unicode string (UTF-8 or UTF-16) type.

ShortString/AnsiString

The potential alias types for type String - ShortString and AnsiString - differ with respect to length:

• ShortString has a fixed length that is decided by the programmer (e.g. name : String[25];) but is limited to 255 characters. If a ShortString length is not explicitly given, then the length is implicitly set to 255.

• AnsiString has a variable length that is limited only by the value of High(SizeInt) (which is platfom dependant) and available memory.

See also

• Character and string types, a detailed reference covering internal memory layout and access options.