[fpc-pascal] Empty string

[Flávio Etrusco]

To the OP: are you using the AnsiString as a buffer (that contains
"several" strings)? Otherwise, using "MyString <> '' " would do
because #0 is only valid as terminator in UTF-8 too.

BTW, IIRC Delphi would generate faster code for the above construction
instead of "Length(MyString) <> 0" because of locking.


> > I thought string should be accessed from 1 not 0 for compatibility.
>  > And it is what I am doing.
>  >
>  > for i := 1 to length(s) do ...
>  >
>  > so I am not sure that using s[0] is safe
>  >

s[0] won't compile. Not in Delphi, at least.


>  If memory serves, the [0] element was originally used to hold a byte that
>  was equivalent to the string length.  This was in the Turbo Pascal days
>  though.  I don't recall if that behavior was carried over into Delphi or
>  the Delphi mode of FPC.
>

That's correct, but for ShortStrings only.

Best regards,
Flávio