Quick start manual

Data types, variables, and constants 5-45
Resource strings
Resource strings are stored as resources and linked into the executable or library so
that they can be modified without recompiling the program. For more information,
see the online Help topics on localizing applications.
Resource strings are declared like other true constants, except that the word const is
replaced by resourcestring. The expression to the right of the = symbol must be a
constant expression and must return a string value. For example,
resourcestring
CreateError = 'Cannot create file %s'; { for explanations of format specifiers, }
OpenError = 'Cannot open file %s'; { see 'Format strings' in the online Help }
LineTooLong = 'Line too long';
ProductName = 'Borland Rocks';
SomeResourceString = SomeTrueConstant;
Typed constants
Typed constants, unlike true constants, can hold values of array, record, procedural,
and pointer types. Typed constants cannot occur in constant expressions.
Declare a typed constant like this:
const identifier: type = value
where identifier is any valid identifier, type is any type except files and variants, and
value is an expression of type type. For example,
const Max: Integer = 100;
In most cases, value must be a constant expression; but if type is an array, record,
procedural, or pointer type, special rules apply.
Array constants
To declare an array constant, enclose the values of the array’s elements, separated by
commas, in parentheses at the end of the declaration. These values must be
represented by constant expressions. For example,
const Digits: array[0..9] of Char = ('0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9');
declares a typed constant called Digits that holds an array of characters.
Zero-based character arrays often represent null-terminated strings, and for this
reason string constants can be used to initialize character arrays. So the previous
declaration can be more conveniently represented as
const Digits: array[0..9] of Char = '0123456789';
To define a multidimensional array constant, enclose the values of each dimension in
a separate set of parentheses, separated by commas. For example,
type TCube = array[0..1, 0..1, 0..1] of Integer;
const Maze: TCube = (((0, 1), (2, 3)), ((4, 5), (6,7)));