Delphi in a Nutshell

Name

Initialize Procedure

Syntax

procedure Initialize(var Value);
procedure Initialize(var Value; Count: Integer);

Description

The Initialize procedure initializes strings, dynamic arrays, interfaces, and Variants. Value can be a single variable or it can be a record or array that contains strings, dynamic arrays, interfaces, or Variants.

If you are initializing more than one item in an array, pass the count of the number of array elements as the Count parameter. The Count is the number of array elements, not the number of bytes allocated.

The New procedure automatically calls Initialize. Object fields are also initialized automatically (by the NewInstance method).

Initialize is not a real procedure.

Tips and Tricks

• New calls Initialize for you, so you need to call Initialize only when you allocate memory by calling GetMem.

• The first argument to Initialize is not a pointer, but the actual variable or dereferenced pointer.

• Initialize must know the type of the buffer so it knows about array and record members. If you are casting a generic Pointer, be sure you cast it to the correct type. Typecasting pointers is a common source of hard-to-locate bugs.

Example

type TSample = record Str: string; List: array of Integer; Intf: IUnknown; V: Variant; end; // The TSampleArray type is declared with the largest possible size. // At runtime, the program allocates only as many samples as it // needs. This is a common idiom in programs that must interface // with the Windows API or other C and C++ programs ...