[SOLVED] Is this a compiler bug? What am I missing?

[EganSolo]

Laz 4.4. on Win 11

I'me getting a "Warning: Function result variable does not seem to be initialized" and I want to make certain I don't have a function that's not returning a result ...

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. Unit unitname;
2. {$mode objfpc}{$H+}
3.  
4. Interface
5.   //... other functions header here
6.   function CreateStructAttr    : pr_StructAttr   ; overload;
7.   function CreateStructAttr(const anID: String; Const aName: String; const aStructID  : String): pr_StructAttr; overload;
8.  
9. Implementation
10.  
11. function C1(const anSType: TStype; const aSize: Natural): pai_Polyrecord;
12. begin
13.    Result := NewPtrToStructurePolyRec(aSize , ski_None);
14.    DoCreateElemSlots(Result,anSType);
15. end;
16.  
17. function CreateStructAttr: pr_StructAttr;
18. begin
19.   Result := C1(SStructAttr, cc_struct_attr_size);
20. end;
21.  
22. function CreateStructAttr(const anID: String; const aName: String; const aStructID: String): pr_StructAttr;
23. begin
24. //  Result := C1(SStructAttr, cc_struct_attr_size);
25.   Result := CreateStructAttr; // <== Warning: Function Result variable does not seem to be initialized
26.   DoPopulateCustomAttrSlots(Result,anID,aName);
27.   Result^.AsStringChild[cc_cust_attr_type_idx] := aStructID;
28. end;
29.  

If I rename function CreateStructAttr to function EmptyStructAttr, the warning goes away ...
Or, if I uncomment the line //  Result := C1(SStructAttr, cc_struct_attr_size); and comment out
  Result := CreateStructAttr; the warning goes away ...


Is this a bug?

[jamie]

Not a bug, what you did was wrong.

You are calling itself to set itself.

That basically would put the function into an incursive loop!

[EganSolo]

Not a bug, what you did was wrong.
You are calling itself to set itself.

Really?
How am I doing that, when the call is to the function with no parameters?

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. function A: Integer; begin result := 1; end;
2. function A(const j : integer): integer; begin result := A + j; // calls the first version, not this one. Am I missing something?
3.  

[jamie]

Sorry about that, I didn't look up enough

What does Code tools point to when you hover over it?

Jamie

[Martin_fr]

The function name is an alias for "result" or vice versa.

I.e., you can do

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. function foo: byte;
2. begin
3.   foo := 1; // set result to 1
4. end;

If you instead want to call foo, then use "foo()"

So your code

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. Result := CreateStructAttr;

equals to

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. result := result:

[EganSolo]

Ah! Thanks, Martin! Now, Jamie’s answer makes sense! Somehow, I assumed the compiler would first_ look for a function whose signature matches what I'm calling, ergo CreateStructAttr, and if it finds one, it would resolve the call to that function. I had forgotten about result = function name (duh!)

Thanks guys!

[jamie]

It's possible but not sure that if you include the unit name space in that call, it may find the outside one.

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. Result := UnitName.CreateStructAttr
2.  
3.