Record Type

The record type is a structured type defined by the user.

A variable of type record is a data structure made up of elements, called fields or members, of various types, each identified by an identifier, and accessible using this identifier.

Syntax: declaring a record type.

type
   identifier = record
      field_1 : type_field_1;
      field_2 : type_field_2;
      {. . .}
      field_n : type_field_n;
end;

Example: record type to manage data relating to a date.

type
   date = record
      day : 1..31;
      month : 1..12;
      year : integer;
end;
var
   event : date;
{ . . . }
   event.day := 12;
   event.month := 3;
   event.annee := 2011;

The . (dot) operator is used to access the fields of a record type variable.
This operator is called the member access operator.

Example: record type to manage data related to a book.

type
   book = record
      title : string[80];
      author : string[80];
      id : integer;
end;
var
   item : book;
{ . . . }
   item.title := 'Algorithms';
   item.author := 'Donald Knuth';
   item.id := 12345;

The with Statement

The with statement is used to avoid rewriting the name of a record type variable when accessing its fields.

Example

var
   item : book;
{ . . . }
   with item do
   begin
      title := 'Algorithms';
      author := 'Donald Knuth';
      id := 12345;
   end;

Assignment

Two variables of the same record type can be assigned to each other (copy) using the assignment operator.

Passing parameters

A variable of record type can be passed as a parameter to a procedure or a function.

Interest of the record type

It allows you to structure data that has a logical link between them, to copy them easily and to pass them as parameters to procedures and functions.