Are there any cases where a string variable will be allocated with anything other than zero length, or a dynamic array will be allocated with anything other than zero elements?

Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote

Are there any cases where a string variable will be allocated with anything other than zero length,

In case it's a shortstring, the initial data could be anything.

or a dynamic array will be allocated with anything other than zero elements?

No.

Jonas

In our previous episode, Mark Morgan Lloyd said:

Are there any cases where a string variable will be allocated with anything other than zero length, or a dynamic array will be allocated with anything other than zero elements?

Global string variables can be initialized.

var x : ansistring = 'yyy';

Thanks Jonas, it was mainly the dynamic array case that I was interested in. Presumably a string defined without an explicit length is a longstring and starts empty.

Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote

Presumably a string defined without an explicit length is a longstring

Only in case of {$h+} (which is the default in Delphi mode, but not in other modes).

and starts empty.

Yes.

Jonas