Var

The keyword var is used to:

• start section of variable declarations, and
• declare a formal parameter as penetrating mutable.

Variable declaration section

In a block the word var starts a section of one or more variable declarations.

var
    age: integer;

Variables bearing the same data type can be grouped, by separating their respective identifiers by a comma:

var
    firstName, lastName, address: string;

Variable parameter

The word var prior a formal parameter declaration indicates that this parameter is variable, that means assigning values to it will affect the named parameter at the call site.

procedure censor(var xxx: longWord);
begin
    if (xxx = $4655434B) or (xxx = $6675636B) then
    begin
        xxx := $2A2A2A2A;
    end;
end;

After invoking procedure censor the value of the variable that was supplied at the call site (i. e. where the procedure was called) will (possibly) have changed, too.

See also

• const

From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Var", as it stood on 2021-07-04 after a change by Kai Burghardt, 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.