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Where the Pointer type is declared? [solved]
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MNeto:
Hello.
I am a new user of the Free Pascal and Lazarus.
I'm reading the documentation and learning the Object Pascal language used by Free Pascal.
My question is:
I know I can declare a pointer like this:
--- Code: ---var p: Pointer;
--- End code ---
But did not found the documentation for this type. What is he? A class?
What type is the "Pointer" type? I can not locate the unit where it is declared. What this type mean?
At another site, which also uses Pascal, is said to Pointer is a type declared in the System unit. But when I look at the Free Pascal documentation, I found nothing about it.
Thank you in advance.
eny:
It is one of the built-in types, just like integer, boolean etc.
A pointer is just what it says, a pointer (to another data structure, variable etc.).
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/ref/refse15.html#x46-530003.4
MNeto:
Thanks for the answer.
My question was what types such as Integer, among others, are declared in the System unit. I could not find the declaration of 'Pointer' nowhere.
I know this is not a question so important. But really I got this curiosity.
marcov:
--- Quote from: MNeto on August 21, 2015, 04:12:47 pm ---My question was what types such as Integer, among others, are declared in the System unit. I could not find the declaration of 'Pointer' nowhere.
--- End quote ---
- Integer, like pointer is built-in, but it is redefined in the objpas system unit enhancement (unit objpas, automatically loaded for modes objfpc and delphi).
- some types are pseudo defined in system.fpd. This sourcefile is not really used except by the documentation system. It contains equivalent declarations for built-in types. However the pointer type isn't defined there either.
So in summary, pointer is built-in without even a (re-)declaration for documentation purposes.
MNeto:
Thank you.
Now I understand.
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