Delphi TList of records

Question

I need to store a temporary list of records and was thinking that a TList would be a good way to do this? However I am unsure how to do this with a TList<

Answer 1

It all depends on the type of data you want to store.

You might consider using TCollection and TCollectionItem.

Here is (edited) code from a working unit, in which I used TCollection to read a list of report definitions from a folder. Each report consisted of a sort of template and an SQL statement which had to be stored together with a file name.

Since it is edited, and uses some of my own units (TedlFolderRtns reads files into an internal list, to name but one), the example is simple enough to be useful. With a few replace all, you can adapt to whatever your need.

Look up TCollection in the help, you can do a lot with it. And it keeps your code handling nicely grouped together in a class-like structure.

  unit cReports;
  interface
  uses
     SysUtils, Classes, XMLDoc, XMLIntf, Variants,
     // dlib - Edelcom
     eIntList, eProgSettings,eFolder ;
  type

     TReportDefItem = class(TCollectionItem)
     private
        fSql: string;
        fSkeleton: string;
        fFileName: string;
        procedure Load;
        procedure SetFileName(const Value: string);
     public
        constructor Create(Collection:TCollection); override;
        destructor Destroy ; override;

        property FileName: string read fFileName write SetFileName;
        property Sql : string read fSql write fSql;
        property Skeleton : string read fSkeleton write fSkeleton;
     end;

     TReportDefList = class(TCollection)
     private
        function OsReportFolder: string;
        function GetAction(const Index: integer): TReportDefItem;
     public
        constructor Create(ItemClass: TCollectionItemClass);
        destructor Destroy; override;

        procedure LoadList;

        function Add : TReportDefItem;
        property Action [ const Index:integer ]: TReportDefItem read GetAction;
     end;

  implementation

  { TReportDefList }

  constructor TReportDefList.Create(ItemClass: TCollectionItemClass);
  begin
     inherited;
  end;

  destructor TReportDefList.Destroy;
  begin
     inherited;
  end;
  function TReportDefList.Add: TReportDefItem;
  begin
     Result := TReportDefItem( Add() );
  end;

  function TReportDefList.GetAction(const Index: integer): TReportDefItem;
  begin
     if (Index >= 0) and (Index < Count)
     then Result := TReportDefItem( Items[Index] )
     else Result := Nil;
  end;

  procedure TReportDefList.LoadList;
  var Folder : TedlFolderRtns;
      i : integer;
      Itm : TReportDefItem;
  begin
     Folder := TedlFolderRtns.Create;
     try
        Folder.FileList( OsReportFolder,'*.sw.xml', False);
        for i := 0 to Folder.ResultListCount -1 do
        begin
          Itm := Add();
          Itm.FileName := Folder.ResultList[i];
        end;
     finally
        FreeAndNil(Folder);
     end;
  end;

  function TReportDefList.OsReportFolder: string;
  begin
     Result := Application.ExeName + '_RprtDef';
  end;

  { TReportDefItem }

  constructor TReportDefItem.Create(Collection: TCollection);
  begin
     inherited;
     fSql := '';
     fSkeleton := '';
  end;

  destructor TReportDefItem.Destroy;
  begin
    inherited;
  end;

  procedure TReportDefItem.Load;
  var XMLDoc : IXMLDocument;
      TopNode : IXMLNode;
      FileNode : IXmlNode;
      iWebIndex, iRemoteIndex : integer;
      sWebVersion, sRemoteVersion: string;
      sWebFileName: string;
  begin
     if not FileExists(fFileName ) then Exit;

     XMLDoc := TXMLDocument.Create(nil);
     try
        XMLDoc.LoadFromFile( fFileName );
        XMLDoc.Active := True;

        TopNode := XMLDoc.ChildNodes.FindNode('sw-report-def');
        if not Assigned(TopNode) then Exit;

        FileNode := TopNode.ChildNodes.First;
        while Assigned(FileNode) do
        begin
           fSql := VarToStr( FileNode.Attributes['sql'] );
           fSkeleton := VarToStr(  FileNode.Attributes['skeleton'] );
           FileNode := FileNode.NextSibling;
        end;
        XMLDoc.Active := False;
     finally
        XMLDoc := Nil;
     end;
  end;

  procedure TReportDefItem.SetFileName(const Value: string);
  begin
     if fFileName <> Value
     then begin
        fFileName := Value;
        Load;
     end;
  end;
  end.

Use as :

fReports := TReportDefList.Create( TReportDefItem );
fReports.LoadList();