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#### 3.1.1 Ordinal types

With the exception of int64, qword and Real types, all base types are ordinal types. Ordinal types have the following characteristics:

1. Ordinal types are countable and ordered, i.e. it is, in principle, possible to start counting them one by one, in a specified order. This property allows the operation of functions as Inc, Ord, Dec on ordinal types to be defined.
2. Ordinal values have a smallest possible value. Trying to apply the Pred function on the smallest possible value will generate a range check error if range checking is enabled.
3. Ordinal values have a largest possible value. Trying to apply the Succ function on the largest possible value will generate a range check error if range checking is enabled.

##### Integers

A list of pre-defined integer types is presented in table (3.1).

Table 3.1: Predefined integer types

Name

Integer
Shortint
SmallInt
Longint
Longword
Int64
Byte
Word
Cardinal
QWord
Boolean
ByteBool
WordBool
LongBool
Char

The integer types, and their ranges and sizes, that are predefined in Free Pascal are listed in table (3.2). Please note that the qword and int64 types are not true ordinals, so some Pascal constructs will not work with these two integer types.

Table 3.2: Predefined integer types

Type | Range | Size in bytes

Byte | 0 .. 255 | 1
Shortint | -128 .. 127 | 1
Smallint | -32768 .. 32767 | 2
Word | 0 .. 65535 | 2
Integer | either smallint or longint | size 2 or 4
Cardinal | longword | 4
Longint | -2147483648 .. 2147483647 | 4
Longword | 0 .. 4294967295 | 4
Int64 | -9223372036854775808 .. 9223372036854775807 | 8
QWord | 0 .. 18446744073709551615 | 8

The integer type maps to the smallint type in the default Free Pascal mode. It maps to either a longint in either Delphi or ObjFPC mode. The cardinal type is currently always mapped to the longword type.

Remark: All decimal constants which do no fit within the -2147483648..2147483647 range are silently and automatically parsed as 64-bit integer constants as of version 1.9.0. Earlier versions would convert it to a real-typed constant.

Free Pascal does automatic type conversion in expressions where different kinds of integer types are used.

##### Boolean types

Free Pascal supports the Boolean type, with its two pre-defined possible values True and False. These are the only two values that can be assigned to a Boolean type. Of course, any expression that resolves to a boolean value, can also be assigned to a boolean type.

Table 3.3: Boolean types

Name | Size | Ord(True)

Boolean | 1 | 1
ByteBool | 1 | Any nonzero value
WordBool | 2 | Any nonzero value
LongBool | 4 | Any nonzero value

Free Pascal also supports the ByteBool, WordBool and LongBool types. These are of type Byte, Word or Longint, but are assignment compatible with a Boolean: the value False is equivalent to 0 (zero) and any nonzero value is considered True when converting to a boolean value. A boolean value of True is converted to -1 in case it is assigned to a variable of type LongBool.

Assuming B to be of type Boolean, the following are valid assignments:

B := True;
B := False;
B := 1<>2; { Results in B := True }

Boolean expressions are also used in conditions.

Remark: In Free Pascal, boolean expressions are by default always evaluated in such a way that when the result is known, the rest of the expression will no longer be evaluated: this is called short-cut boolean evaluation.

In the following example, the function Func will never be called, which may have strange side-effects.

...
B := False;
A := B and Func;

Here Func is a function which returns a Boolean type.

This behaviour is controllable by the {$B } compiler directive.

##### Enumeration types

Enumeration types are supported in Free Pascal. On top of the Turbo Pascal implementation, Free Pascal allows also a C-style extension of the enumeration type, where a value is assigned to a particular element of the enumeration list.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Enumerated types
___________________________________________________________________

(see chapter 12, page 458 for how to use expressions) When using assigned enumerated types, the assigned elements must be in ascending numerical order in the list, or the compiler will complain. The expressions used in assigned enumerated elements must be known at compile time. So the following is a correct enumerated type declaration:

Type
Direction = ( North, East, South, West );

A C-style enumeration type looks as follows:

Type
EnumType = (one, two, three, forty := 40,fortyone);

As a result, the ordinal number of forty is 40, and not 3, as it would be when the ’:= 40’ wasn’t present. The ordinal value of fortyone is then 41, and not 4, as it would be when the assignment wasn’t present. After an assignment in an enumerated definition the compiler adds 1 to the assigned value to assign to the next enumerated value.

When specifying such an enumeration type, it is important to keep in mind that the enumerated elements should be kept in ascending order. The following will produce a compiler error:

Type
EnumType = (one, two, three, forty := 40, thirty := 30);

It is necessary to keep forty and thirty in the correct order. When using enumeration types it is important to keep the following points in mind:

1. The Pred and Succ functions cannot be used on this kind of enumeration types. Trying to do this anyhow will result in a compiler error.
2. Enumeration types are stored using a default, independent of the actual number of values: the compiler does not try to optimize for space. This behaviour can be changed with the {$PACKENUM n} compiler directive, which tells the compiler the minimal number of bytes to be used for enumeration types. For instance
   Type
   {$PACKENUM 4}
   LargeEnum = ( BigOne, BigTwo, BigThree );
   {$PACKENUM 1}
   SmallEnum = ( one, two, three );
   Var S : SmallEnum;
   L : LargeEnum;
   begin
   WriteLn (’Small enum : ’,SizeOf(S));
   WriteLn (’Large enum : ’,SizeOf(L));
   end.

   will, when run, print the following:

   Small enum : 1
   Large enum : 4

More information can be found in the Programmer’s Guide, in the compiler directives section.

##### Subrange types

A subrange type is a range of values from an ordinal type (the host type). To define a subrange type, one must specify its limiting values: the highest and lowest value of the type.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subrange types
___________________________________________________________________

Some of the predefined integer types are defined as subrange types:

Type
Longint = $80000000..$7fffffff;
Integer = -32768..32767;
shortint = -128..127;
byte = 0..255;
Word = 0..65535;

Subrange types of enumeration types can also be defined:

Type
Days = (monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,
saturday,sunday);
WorkDays = monday .. friday;
WeekEnd = Saturday .. Sunday;

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