Delphi Unicode String Type Stored Directly at its Address

Posted by Andreas Rejbrand on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Andreas Rejbrand
Published on 2010-05-10T21:19:18Z Indexed on 2010/05/10 21:24 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 409

Filed under:

delphi

|

string

|

unicode

|

shortstring

|

memory

I want a string type that is Unicode and that stores the string directly at the adress of the variable, as is the case of the (Ansi-only) ShortString type.

I mean, if I declare a S: ShortString and let S := 'My String', then, at @S, I will find the length of the string (as one byte, so the string cannot contain more than 255 characters) followed by the ANSI-encoded string itself.

What I would like is a Unicode variant of this. That is, I want a string type such that, at @S, I will find a unsigned 32-bit integer containing the length of the string in bytes (or in characters, which is half the number of bytes) followed by the Unicode representation of the string. I have tried WideString, UnicodeString, and RawByteString, but they all appear only to store an adress at @S, and the actual string somewhere else (I guess this has do do with reference counting and such).

I suspect that there is no built-in type to use, and that I have to come up with my own way of storing text the way I want (which actually is fun). Am I right?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about delphi

TVirtualStringTree compatibility between Delphi 7 and Delphi 2010 - 'Parameter lists differ'

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I've made a form containing a TVirtualStringTree that works in Delphi 7 and Delphi 2010. I notice that as I move between the two platforms I get the message '...parameter list differ..' on the tree events and that the string type is changing bewteen TWideString (D7) and string (D2010). The only… >>> More
Convert Delphi 7 code to work with Delphi 2009

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a String that I needed access to the first character of, so I used stringname[1]. With the unicode support this no longer works. I get an error: [DCC Error] sndkey32.pas(420): E2010 Incompatible types: 'Char' and 'AnsiChar' Example code: //vkKeyScan from the windows unit var KeyString:… >>> More
Book recommendation for moving from Delphi 6 to Delphi 2010

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am a long time Delphi 6 developer. Looking for a book on Delphi 2010. Not only on the new features available in Delphi 2010, but more importantly, guideline on how different it is to develop applications in Delphi 2010, the architecture, standard and convention, etc. Thanks a lot. >>> More
Compile Delphi component package (bpl) for different Delphi versions

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello. The situation is the following. Typically I use RAD Studio 2010 for Delphi development. I have some components I would like to redistribute in binary form (*.bpl without source). But I would like people to be able to use them despite of their Delphi version. But, for example, dcu files can… >>> More
Delphi Speech recognition delphi

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need create a programatic equivalent using delphi language... or could someone post a link on how to do grammars in peech recogniton using the delphi. sorry for my english... XML Grammar Sample(s): <GRAMMAR>  <RULE NAME="HelloWorld"… >>> More

Related posts about string

Read array dump output and generates the correspondent XML file

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, The text below is the dump of a multidimensional array, dumped by the var_dump() PHP function. I need a Java function that reads a file with a content like this (attached) and returns it in XML. For a reference, in site http://pear.php.net/package/Var_Dump/ you can find the code (in PHP) that… >>> More
Formatting a date string when the string sits inside another string

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I'm trying to figure out a way to format a date string that sits inside string using javascript. The string can be: "hello there From 2010-03-04 00:00:00.0 to 2010-03-31 00:00:00.0" or "stuff like 2010-03-04 20:00:00.0 and 2010-03-31 00:00:02.0 blah blah" I'd like it to end up like: "stuff… >>> More
Using String+string+string vs using string.replace

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
A colleague told me that using the following method: string url = "SomeURL"; string ext = "SomeExt"; string sub = "SomeSub"; string subSub = "moreSub"; string Url = @"http://www." + Url +@"/"+ ext +@"/"+ sub + subSub; is not efficenet (takes more resources) and it is preferred to use the… >>> More
vb.net string concatenation string + function output + string = string + function output and no more

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The following output produces a string with no closing xml tag. m_rFlight.Layout = m_rFlight.Layout + "<G3Grid:Spots>" + Me.gvwSpots.LayoutToString() + "</G3Grid:Spots>" This following code works correctly m_rFlight.Layout = m_rFlight.Layout + "<G3Grid:Spots>" + Me.gvwSpots.LayoutToString() m_rFlight… >>> More
Trying to convert simple midlet application to Android application but running into problems.

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi I am trying to do some threading in Android so I took an old threading assignment I had done fora midlet and took out the midlet code and replaced it with android code(such as textview). package com.assignment1; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.widget.TextView; public… >>> More