Hello,

Here's the code:

procedure dump(const a: array of string);
var
  i : integer;
begin
  for i:=0 to length(a)-1 do
    writeln(a[i]);
end;
const
  fast : array [0..2] of string = ('aa','bb','cc');
begin
  dump(['a','b','c']);
  dump(fast);
end.

The first call to dump(), where the array is passed as "inline" declaration, consists of building of an open array with string constants:

movl $_$PROGRAM$_Ld4,%eax
movl %eax,-12(%ebp)
movl $_$PROGRAM$_Ld5,%eax
movl %eax,-8(%ebp)
movl $_$PROGRAM$_Ld6,%eax
movl %eax,-4(%ebp)
leal -12(%ebp),%eax
movl $2,%edx
call P$PROGRAM_DUMP$array_of_ANSISTRING

the second call, is however just passing a reference to the constant of the open array ("fast")

movl $TC_P$PROGRAM_FAST,%eax
movl $2,%edx
call P$PROGRAM_DUMP$array_of_ANSISTRING

Question: would it be reasonable for the compiler to turn an inline declaration of ['a','b','c'], into a constant implicitly? That would save some instructions to make a call

  dump(['a','b','c']);

is there an optimization switch for that already?

thanks,
Dmitry

Dmitry Boyarintsev wrote

Question: would it be reasonable for the compiler to turn an inline declaration of ['a','b','c'], into a constant implicitly?

There's already a feature request for it:
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=23565

Jonas

Thank you! That answers all my questions