[fpc-pascal] How to know the string type of a variable?

[Michael Van Canneyt]

>> No. You make a wrong assumption.
>>
>> TypeInfo will return the DECLARED type of S.
>>
>> Not the type that was actually passed when calling the routine:
>> That has been converted to the declared type of S by the compiler even
>> before the routine ShowType is called.
>
> You're right.
> Well is there another way to do I showed before?
> I want to create a record/object type to receive a "string" but I need
> to know which string type was before.

There is no way.

>
> If I change the code (see below) to use Pointer type it works but I
> think this is won't help me.

No, it will not help you.

One thing you can do is use overloading:

TStringType = (stAnsi,stUnicode,stUTF8);

Procedure DoSomeStringOperation(S : Pointer; AStringType : TStringType);

begin
   // Whatever
end;

Procedure DoSomeStringOperation(S : Ansistring);

begin
   DoSomeStringOperation(Pointer(S),stAnsi);
end;

Procedure DoSomeStringOperation(S : UnicodeString);

begin
   DoSomeStringOperation(Pointer(S),stUnicode);
end;

Procedure DoSomeStringOperation(S : UTF8String);

begin
   DoSomeStringOperation(Pointer(S),stUTF8);
end.

The compiler will choose the correct overloaded version, and you will know which one she picked.

But it would help to know what exactly you want to achieve.

Michael.