Inc and Dec

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English (en)

The procedures inc and dec increment or decrement a given variable by default by one.

usage

The first parameter specifies an ordinal value variable (e. g. an integer or enumeration type) and the second optional parameter may specify a different addend/subtrahend.

program incDecDemo(input, output, stderr);

type
	primaryColor = (red, green, blue);

var
	phase: primaryColor;
	x: longint;

begin
	// enumeration type
	phase := red;
	inc(phase); // phase becomes green
	writeLn(phase);
	
	// integer
	x := 1;
	inc(x, -1); // x becomes zero
	writeLn(x);
	
	x := 1;
	dec(x); // same as above: x becomes zero
	writeLn(x);
end.

background

In FPC’s system unit the inc and dec procedures are compiler procedures. They exist in order to optimize for certain architectures where dedicated inc and dec assembler instructions are available.

special behaviors

If {$rangeChecks} are turned on, those procedures may generate a run-time error (RTE 201). Also {$overflowChecks} may be generated (with a small difference in TP mode).

If pointer arithmetics are allowed by the {$pointerMath} compiler switch, inc and dec work on pointers, too.

In the case of typed pointers, e. g. a pointer to a record, the target’s type size is considered automatically. For instance:

program pointerIncDemo(input, output, stderr);

{$pointerMath on}

var
	p: PQWord;

begin
	inc(p);
	inc(p, 3);
end.

will generate (excerpt):

; [pointerIncDemo.pas]
; [8] begin
	leaq    -8(%rsp),%rsp
.Lc3:
; Var p located in register rax
	call    FPC_INITIALIZEUNITS
	movq    $0,%rax
; [9] inc(p);
	addq    $8,%rax
; [10] inc(p, 3);
	addq    $24,%rax
; [11] end.
	call    FPC_DO_EXIT
	leaq    8(%rsp),%rsp
	ret

see also