wrong class design need a refactoring - delphi

Question

On a complex application I found a small mistake in respect to class design :
unit Unit1;
interface
uses
Winapi.Windows, Winapi.Messages, System.SysUtils, System.Variants, System.Classes, Vcl.Graphics,
Vcl.Controls, Vcl.Forms, Vcl.Dialogs, Vcl.StdCtrls;
type AboutMe= class
Name : String
end;
type AboutMe_more = class(AboutMe)
gender : String;
Birth : TDate;
end;
type Aboutme_complete = class (AboutMe_more)
adresss : String;
salery : Real;
name : String; /// name is already available a parent class
end;
type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
Button1: TButton;
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private-Deklarationen }
public
{ Public-Deklarationen }
end;
var
Form1: TForm1;
implementation
{$R *.dfm}
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
var _Aboutme_complete : Aboutme_complete ;
begin
_Aboutme_complete := Aboutme_complete.Create;
_Aboutme_complete.name := 'a coding error -> need refactoring ';
end;
end.
In the class "AboutMe_more", by mistake the field name has been added.
I wonder what kind of error might happen if I remove that obsolete name field?
The trouble behind that question ( ~ 100 K Lines of code and no systematic test)

Answer 1

There are two separate variables named name in the type Aboutme_complete. There is one introduced in AboutMe and then a second introduced in Aboutme_complete which hides the first.
For methods of AboutMe, the member name refers to the first variable.
For methods of Aboutme_complete, the member name refers to the second variable.
Removing the variable name from Aboutme_complete will likely change behaviour. That's because there would now be just a single variable, and methods of all the classes would be referring to the same variable. So, as the code stands, methods in Aboutme_complete refer to Aboutme_complete.name, but if you made the change the code would then refer to AboutMe.name.
Whether this breaks your code depends on what the code is. Only you can know the answer to that because only you have that code.