I was trying to show some code to another person when I subtly perceived that beside when declared variables are not used there is compiler hint messages, there is no hints or messages when a declared constant is not used. Following code is an example:
program Project1;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils,
Math;
const
intM: Integer = 1000;
var
valorDouble, notusedvar: Double;
begin
try
valorDouble := 0.001;
Writeln('--- Codigo atual --');
Writeln('Double -> ', Trunc(valorDouble * 1000));
Writeln('--- Correcao?? --');
Writeln('Trunc(1.0000001) -> ', Trunc(1.0000001));
Writeln('Trunc(0.001 * 1000.0) -> ', Trunc(0.001 * 1000.0));
Writeln('Trunc(0.0010 * 1000.0) -> ', Trunc(0.0010 * 1000.0));
Writeln('Trunc(0.00100 * 1000.0) -> ', Trunc(0.00100 * 1000.0));
Readln;
except
on E: Exception do
Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
end;
end.
Why there is no hint about the not used constant? There is any logical explanation about this difference?
Let's jump straight into an example. Let's say you're writing a DLL with 1 exported function. One of those function's parameters is an integer...
procedure DoSomething(const Value: Integer); stdcall;
Now let's say you have defined multiple constants to represent all possible integer values this function might recognize...
const
CON_ONE = 1;
CON_TWO = 2;
CON_THREE = 3;
//Maybe hundreds
Now let's say when you implement this function, you only really need the first one CON_ONE
but not the other two. Would you really want a hint for every one of these?
More realistic example is things like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
, HKEY_CURRENT_USER
, etc. which come with Delphi (tied to Windows API calls). Just take a look at all the constants in Windows.pas
. Imagine if all of these possible constants raised a compiler hint.
Essentially, when you get a compiler hint of an unused variable, it most often means a coding error (or just something you forgot to delete), whereas an unused constant typically means just an unimplemented capability.