Delphi: how to set the length of a RTTI-accessed dynamic array using DynArraySetLength?
- by conciliator
I'd like to set the length of a dynamic array, as suggested in this post. I have two classes TMyClass and the related TChildClass defined as
TChildClass = class
private
  FField1:  string;
  FField2:  string;
end;
TMyClass = class
private
  FField1:  TChildClass;
  FField2:  Array of TChildClass;
end;
The array augmentation is implemented as
var
  RContext:     TRttiContext;
  RType:        TRttiType;
  Val:          TValue;      // Contains the TMyClass instance
  RField:       TRttiField;  // A field in the TMyClass instance
  RElementType: TRttiType;   // The kind of elements in the dyn array
  DynArr:       TRttiDynamicArrayType;
  Value:        TValue;  // Holding an instance as referenced by an array element
  ArrPointer:   Pointer;
  ArrValue:     TValue;
  ArrLength:    LongInt;
  i:            integer;
begin
  RContext := TRTTIContext.Create;
  try
    RType := RContext.GetType(TMyClass.ClassInfo);
    Val := RType.GetMethod('Create').Invoke(RType.AsInstance.MetaclassType, []);
    RField := RType.GetField('FField2');
    if (RField.FieldType is TRttiDynamicArrayType) then begin 
      DynArr := (RField.FieldType as TRttiDynamicArrayType);
      RElementType := DynArr.ElementType;
      // Set the new length of the array
      ArrValue := RField.GetValue(Val.AsObject);
      ArrLength := 3;   // Three seems like a nice number
      ArrPointer := ArrValue.GetReferenceToRawData;
      DynArraySetLength(ArrPointer, ArrValue.TypeInfo, 1, @ArrLength);
      { TODO : Fix 'Index out of bounds' }
      WriteLn(ArrValue.IsArray, ' ', ArrValue.GetArrayLength);
      if RElementType.IsInstance then begin
        for i := 0 to ArrLength - 1 do begin
          Value := RElementType.GetMethod('Create').Invoke(RElementType.AsInstance.MetaclassType, []);
          ArrValue.SetArrayElement(i, Value);
          // This is just a test, so let's clean up immediatly
          Value.Free;
        end;
      end;
    end;
    ReadLn;
    Val.AsObject.Free;
  finally
    RContext.Free;
  end;
end.
Being new to D2010 RTTI, I suspected the error could depend on getting ArrValue from the class instance, but the subsequent WriteLn prints "TRUE", so I've ruled that out. Disappointingly, however, the same WriteLn reports that the size of ArrValue is 0, which is confirmed by the "Index out of bounds"-exception I get when trying to set any of the elements in the array (through ArrValue.SetArrayElement(i, Value);). Do anyone know what I'm doing wrong here? (Or perhaps there is a better way to do this?) TIA!