How to loop all properties in a Class - delphi

Question

I have a class in my Delphi app where I would like an easy and dynamic way of resetting all the string properties to '' and all the boolean properties to False
As far as I can see on the web it should be possible to make a loop of some sort, but how to do it isn't clear to me.

Answer 1

if you are an Delphi 2010 (and higher) user then there is a new RTTI unit (rtti.pas). you can use it to get runtime information about your class and its properties (public properties by default, but you can use {$RTTI} compiler directive to include protected and private fields information).
For example we have next test class with 3 public fields (1 boolean and 2 string fields (one of them is readonly)).
TTest = class(TObject)
strict private
FString1 : string;
FString2 : string;
FBool : boolean;
public
constructor Create();
procedure PrintValues();
property String1 : string read FString1 write FString1;
property String2 : string read FString2;
property BoolProp : boolean read FBool write FBool;
end;
constructor TTest.Create();
begin
FBool := true;
FString1 := 'test1';
FString2 := 'test2';
end;
procedure TTest.PrintValues();
begin
writeln('string1 : ', FString1);
writeln('string2 : ', FString2);
writeln('bool: ', BoolToStr(FBool, true));
end;
to enumerate all properties of object and set it values to default you can use something like code below.
First at all you have to init TRttiContext structure (it is not neccesary, because it is a record). Then you should get rtti information about your obejct, after that you can loop your properties and filter it (skip readonly properties and other than boolean and stirng). Take into account that there are few kind of strings : tkUString, tkString and others (take a look at TTypeKind in typinfo.pas)
TObjectReset = record
strict private
public
class procedure ResetObject(obj : TObject); static;
end;
{ TObjectReset }
class procedure TObjectReset.ResetObject(obj: TObject);
var ctx : TRttiContext;
rt : TRttiType;
prop : TRttiProperty;
value : TValue;
begin
ctx := TRttiContext.Create();
try
rt := ctx.GetType(obj.ClassType);
for prop in rt.GetProperties() do begin
if not prop.IsWritable then continue;
case prop.PropertyType.TypeKind of
tkEnumeration : value := false;
tkUString : value := '';
else continue;
end;
prop.SetValue(obj, value);
end;
finally
ctx.Free();
end;
end;
simple code to test:
var t : TTest;
begin
t := TTest.Create();
try
t.PrintValues();
writeln('reset values'#13#10);
TObjectReset.ResetObject(t);
t.PrintValues();
finally
readln;
t.Free();
end;
end.
and result is
string1 : test1
string2 : test2
bool: True
reset values
string1 :
string2 : test2
bool: False
also take a look at Attributes, imo it is good idea to mark properties (wich you need to reset) with some attribute, and may be with default value like:
[ResetTo('my initial value')]
property MyValue : string read FValue write FValue;
then you can filter only properties wich are marked with ResetToAttribute

Answer 2

Please note, the following code works only for published properties of a class! Also, the instance of a class passed to the function below must have at least published section defined!
Here is how to set the published string property values to an empty string and boolean values to False by using the old style RTTI.
If you have Delphi older than Delphi 2009 you might be missing the tkUString type. If so, simply removeit from the following code:
uses
TypInfo;
procedure ResetPropertyValues(const AObject: TObject);
var
PropIndex: Integer;
PropCount: Integer;
PropList: PPropList;
PropInfo: PPropInfo;
const
TypeKinds: TTypeKinds = [tkEnumeration, tkString, tkLString, tkWString,
tkUString];
begin
PropCount := GetPropList(AObject.ClassInfo, TypeKinds, nil);
GetMem(PropList, PropCount * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
try
GetPropList(AObject.ClassInfo, TypeKinds, PropList);
for PropIndex := 0 to PropCount - 1 do
begin
PropInfo := PropList^[PropIndex];
if Assigned(PropInfo^.SetProc) then
case PropInfo^.PropType^.Kind of
tkString, tkLString, tkUString, tkWString:
SetStrProp(AObject, PropInfo, '');
tkEnumeration:
if GetTypeData(PropInfo^.PropType^)^.BaseType^ = TypeInfo(Boolean) then
SetOrdProp(AObject, PropInfo, 0);
end;
end;
finally
FreeMem(PropList);
end;
end;
Here is a simple test code (note the properties must be published; if there are no published properties in the class, at least empty published section must be there):
type
TSampleClass = class(TObject)
private
FStringProp: string;
FBooleanProp: Boolean;
published
property StringProp: string read FStringProp write FStringProp;
property BooleanProp: Boolean read FBooleanProp write FBooleanProp;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
SampleClass: TSampleClass;
begin
SampleClass := TSampleClass.Create;
try
SampleClass.StringProp := 'This must be cleared';
SampleClass.BooleanProp := True;
ResetPropertyValues(SampleClass);
ShowMessage('StringProp = ' + SampleClass.StringProp + sLineBreak +
'BooleanProp = ' + BoolToStr(SampleClass.BooleanProp));
finally
SampleClass.Free;
end;
end;