Can a class property be overloaded???

[wpflum]

Not even sure I worded this correctly so I'll describe what I'd like to do.

I have a class that has a property of Quantity which is an integer, the class is designed to take the an inputted integer, convert it to a string and pad with spaces, so integer 9 becomes string '9     '.   It would be nice if I could 'overload' the property to allow an integer to be put in but a string read out so instead of having another property called QuantityString I could just read out Quantity.  Once put in the class the integer Quantity will never be read out as a number so I don't need to see it again.   Since I do this quite frequently, using a class to format output, I'd love to do it this way but I'm not sure if it's even possible.

Bill

[Blaazen]

I don't understand what exactly you try to reach.

Overloaded properties are not allowed, see: http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=12737

If you only need read something and get some result then overloaded function is not enough for you ?

[wpflum]

I'd like to have done something like this:

var
A: integer;
B: string;

begin
A :=10;
Test.Qty := A;

B := Test.Qty;
end;

I thought it would have made the class much neater looking instead of having multiple properties for Qty.

Guess I can't so I'm back to separate properties for input and output.

[Leledumbo]

The code might look neater but it's actually more confusing. That's why I never use Variants in my code (this could be your solution as well, but be aware with the speed and size penalty). An explicit conversion function or input / output separation like your previous approach is easier to understand.

[wpflum]

I changed how the class was functioning so right now I'm good.  I will need to look up what a 'variant' is since I'd like to try this in the future.

Thanks

[Leledumbo]

I will need to look up what a 'variant' is since I'd like to try this in the future.

Read the documentation.

[garlar27]

You can do this:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   ...
2.   procedure GetQuantity(out AQty: Integer);
3.   procedure GetQuantity(out AQty: string);
4.   ...
5.  
6. var
7.   A: integer;
8.   B: string;
9. begin
10.   A :=10;
11.   Test.Qty := A;
12.  
13.   GetQuantity(B);
14. end;
15.  

or a different approach which is not what you expected but ...

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   ...
2.   function QtyAsString: string;
3.   function QtyAsInteger: Integer;
4.   ...
5.  
6. var
7.   A: integer;
8.   B: string;
9.  
10. begin
11.   A :=10;
12.   Test.Qty := A;
13.  
14.   B := Test.QtyAsString;
15. end;
16.  

those are just ideas, maybe you already thought about those approaches.