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How to use generics

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An example of how to use generics to write a function gmax() that takes the maximum of two not-yet-typed variables. Note that while the functions here are namespaced by the classname, FPC versions from 3.1.1 onwards also support fully free-standing generic methods.

pascal
program UseGenerics;

{$mode objfpc}{$H+}

type
  generic TFakeClass<_GT> = class
    class function gmax(a,b: _GT):_GT;
  end;

  TFakeClassInt = specialize TFakeClass<integer>;
  TFakeClassDouble = specialize TFakeClass<double>;

  class function TFakeClass.gmax(a,b: _GT):_GT;
  begin
    if a > b then 
      result := a
    else 
      result := b;
  end;

begin
    // show max of two integers
  writeln( 'Integer GMax:', TFakeClassInt.gmax( 23, 56 ) );
    // show max of two doubles
  writeln( 'Double GMax:', TFakeClassDouble.gmax( 23.89, 56.5) );
  readln();
end.

From the Free Pascal wiki, page "How to use generics", as it stood on 2023-09-20 after a change by RogueScholar, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.

Revision 1, last changed by WikiArchive .

Edited on wiki.freepascal.org by 4 people, 2017–2023

From the official wiki's backup of 26 May 2024: who edited this page there, and when. Edits made there after that date were not recorded, and the earlier versions are not shown here; the main page says why.

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RogueScholarReplace deprecated 'enclose' attribute in syntaxhighlight tags with current 'inline' attribute (minor)

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