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From: mailman@telfon.enet.dec.com (Steven M. Mailman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Defining variable lenght arrays
Message-ID: <16401@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 16 Oct 90 16:49:59 GMT
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 35


In article <24785@adm.BRL.MIL>, BESKO%MSUNSCL.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu writes...
> 
>Does anyone know if it is possible and how to define a variable length char
>array in VAX Pascal?  Any information would be helpful.
> 
There are multiple ways.  The 2nd & 3rd are new in VAX Pascal V4.0.

{1}	{ variable length text; max size of 80 characters }
	VAR
	    x : VARYING [80] OF Char;
	x := 'text';
	Writeln( x.length );   {prints 4}

{2}	{ regular PACKED ARRAY of Char but length is specified at run-time }
	TYPE
	   pac( Length:Integer ) = PACKED ARRAY [1..Length] OF Char;
	VAR
	    x : pac(run-time-expression);
	x := 'text';		{text is blank padded to correct size}
	Writeln( x.length );	{prints length captured in declaration}

{3}	{ variable length text with max length specified at run-time }
	VAR
	    x : String(run-time-expression);
	x := 'text';
	Writeln( x.length );    {prints 4}
	Writeln( x.capacity );	{prints max-size captured in declaration}


Steve Mailman
Digital Equipment Corporation
mailman@tle.enet.dec.com
Disclaimer:  The opinions and statements expressed by me are not
             necessarily those of Digital Equipment Corporation.