A word about scope

It should be stressed that all identifiers other than the template placeholders should be known when the generic class is declared. At the same time, nothing can be assumed about the template type (unless a restriction is placed on it).

In the absence of type restrictions, the generic code cannot make assumptions about the template type T. Consider the following unit:

unit ts;

interface
{$modeswitch advancedrecords}

type
  PListEl = ^TListEl;
  TListEl = packed record
    Prev, Next: PListEl;
  end;

implementation

type
  generic LstEnumerator<T> = record
  private
    lst, lst_save: T;
  public
    constructor Create(const Value: T);
    function MoveNext: boolean;
  end;

function LstEnumerator.MoveNext: boolean;
begin
  Result:=lst <> nil;
  if Result then
    lst:=lst^.next;
end;

constructor LstEnumerator.Create(const Value: T);
begin
  lst:= Value;
  lst_save := nil;
end;

Type
TMyListEnum = specialize LstEnumerator<TListEl>;

end.

The compiler will throw an error because when it compiles the generic definition, it cannot verify that

is correct. lst is of type T, but the compiler does not (yet) know what T is, and hence cannot know it has a field next.

unit ts;
{$mode delphi}
interface

type
  TListEl = class
    Prev, Next: TListEl;
  end;

  TMyRecord1 = Class(TListEl)
    MyField : String;
  end;

  TMyRecord2 = Class(TListEl)
    MyInteger : Integer;
  end;

implementation

type
  TLstEnumerator<T : TListEl> = class
  private
    lst, lst_save: T;
  public
    constructor Create(const Value: T);
    function MoveNext: boolean;
  end;

function TLstEnumerator<T>.MoveNext: boolean;
begin
  Result:=lst <> T(nil);
  if Result then
    lst:=T(lst.next);
end;

constructor TLstEnumerator<t>.Create(const Value: T);
begin
  lst:= Value;
  lst_save := T(nil);
end;

Type
TMyRecord1Enum = TLstEnumerator<TMyRecord1>;
TMyRecord2Enum = TLstEnumerator<TMyRecord2>;

Here, the compiler knows that lst is at least of type TListEl, and hence contains members Prev and Next.

Beside the template type, all other types used in the generic declaration must be known. This means that a type identifier with the same name must exist. The following unit will produce an error:

{$mode objfpc}
unit myunit;

interface

type
  Generic TMyClass<T> = Class(TObject)
    Procedure DoSomething(A : T; B : TSomeType);
  end;

Type
  TSomeType = Integer;
  TSomeTypeClass = specialize TMyClass<TSomeType>;

Implementation

Procedure TMyClass.DoSomething(A : T; B : TSomeType);

begin
  // Some code.
end;

end.

The above code will result in an error, because the type TSomeType is not known when the declaration is parsed:

home: >fpc myunit.pp
myunit.pp(8,47) Error: Identifier not found "TSomeType"
myunit.pp(11,1) Fatal: There were 1 errors compiling module, stopping

{$mode objfpc}
unit mya;

interface

type
  Generic TMyClass<T> = Class(TObject)
    Procedure DoSomething(A : T);
  end;

Implementation

Procedure DoLocalThings;

begin
  Writeln('mya.DoLocalThings');
end;

Procedure TMyClass.DoSomething(A : T);

begin
  DoLocalThings;
end;

end.

The compiler will not allow to compile this unit, since the DoLocalThings function will not be visible when the generic type is specialized:

Error: Global Generic template references static symtable

Now, if the unit is modified, and the DoLocalThings function is moved to the interface section, the unit will compile. When using this generic in a program:

{$mode objfpc}
program myb;

uses mya;

procedure DoLocalThings;

begin
  Writeln('myb.DoLocalThings');
end;

Type
  TB = specialize TMyClass<Integer>;

Var
  B : TB;

begin
  B:=TB.Create;
  B.DoSomething(1);
end.

Despite the fact that generics act as a macro which is replayed at specialization time, the reference to DoLocalThings is resolved when TMyClass is defined, not when TB is defined. This means that the output of the program is:

8.8 A word about scope