How do I represent a null terminated string array in Delphi?

Question

How can I represent this C code in Delphi?

static char *mylist[] = {"aaa", "bbb", "ccc", NULL};

I can create my array as of

keywords : array[0..3] of string;
keywords[0] := 'aaa';
keywords[1] := 'bbb';
keywords[2] := 'ccc';
//Compiler error -> E2010 Incompatible types: 'string' and 'Pointer' 
keywords[3] := nil;

Ah. Well, actually you should just be able to do pchar instead of string. — 500 - Internal Server Error
– 500 - Internal Server Error, Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 22:38
This question is missing information that is relevant. What does the C code do with the array mylist after this single line? (How to represent it properly in Delphi depends on how the resulting array is being used. Most of the ways you'd use it don't need that construct at all.) — Ken White
– Ken White, Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 1:50

Remy Lebeau · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-18 22:39:27Z

6

char* in C/C++ is PAnsiChar in Delphi, eg:

const
  mylist: array[0..3] of PAnsiChar = ('aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', nil);

Or:

var
  mylist: array[0..3] of PAnsiChar;

mylist[0] := 'aaa';
mylist[1] := 'bbb';
mylist[2] := 'ccc';
mylist[3] := nil;

answered Apr 18, 2014 at 22:39

Remy Lebeau

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1 Comment

David Heffernan Over a year ago

This would be the correct approach if the requirement was interop. Pass such a thing to a different module. Otherwise you would never do this.

Flibustier · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-18 22:45:21Z

2

In Pascal, arrays and strings are a distinct type from pointers, so you can't assign the nil pointer.

You probably don't need a special token to terminate your array anyway. This is a C idiom.

If you want to loop through your array, simply do this :

for word in keywords do
    writeln(word)

answered Apr 18, 2014 at 22:45

Flibustier

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