Constructor Call

Inside a Constructor, the constructor keyword can be used to defer construction of a Class or Record instance to another constructor on the same type, or the ancestor class.

Used on its own, the constructor keyword calls a different constructor on the same type:

type
  MyClass = public class
  public
    constructor;
    constructor(aName: String);

    property Name: String;
  end;

constructor MyClass;
begin
  constructor('My Name'); // calls the second constructor.
end;

constructor(aName: String);
begin
  Name := aName;
end;

Please refer to the Constructors: Deferred Construction topic for more details.

Constructor calls accept parameters, and they can also work with named and multi-part constructors. Just as in new Expressions, the keyword can be followed (optionally) by a name, and/or a set of parameters. Unlike new Expressions, constructor calls can not take additional properties to initialize, but that can be done as separate statements after the constructor call.

'inherited` Constructor Calls

In constructors for Classes, the inherited Expression can be used with constructor calls in order to defer execution to a constructor of the base class:

constructor;
begin
  DoSomeWork();
  inherited constructor("Hello");
  DoSomeMoreWork();
end;

'mapped` Constructor Calls

In Mapped Types, constructors can defer defer to constructors of the original type using the mapped Expression with the constructor call:

constructor;
begin
  mapped constructor("Hello");
  DoSomeAdditionalSetup();
end;

Please refer to the Mapped Types: Constructors sub-topic for more details.

See Also