Hi, I have a function that has a parameter to a datastructure with some arrays with records is it. This function needs to return a pointer to a specific record inside that structure. The function is not supposed to alter the contents of this datastructure. So, I need to pass this structure by reference. (I've spent hours and hours looking at unexpected results in my program because I passed the datastructure by value, so the returned pointer was in fact garbage...)
I thought that constref would be OK for that (the word constref suggests to me tah the paramter will be treated (by me) to be a constant, and that it shall be passed by reference in all cases, whereas with a const parameter the compiler decides upon the best way to pass it: by value or by reference). I tried to find documentation for constref, but all I could find was: https://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_New_Features_2.6.0#Constref_parameter_modifier There it says: "Note that in general, it should only be used for interfacing with external code or when writing assembler routines." I therefore decided to make it a var parameter, but that feels a bit odd since the function shall not ever alter the datastructure itself. Hence my question: is it OK to use constref for a parameter (and is it guaranteed to work by design this way) if I need to pas a parameter by reference and the function/procedure shall not modify that parameter? (B.t.w.: Where can I find the official documentation on constref?) -- Bart _______________________________________________ fpc-devel maillist - fpc-devel@lists.freepascal.org https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-devel
