12.3 Using string tables.

String tables can be used to store and retrieve large collections of strings in your application.

A string table looks as follows:

 STRINGTABLE { 1, "hello World !"
               2, "hello world again !"
               3, "last hello world !" }

You can compile this (we assume the file is called tests.rc) as follows:

 windres -i tests.rc -o tests.res

And this is the way to retrieve the strings from your program:

 program tests;
 
 {$mode objfpc}
 
 Uses Windows;
 
 {$R *.res}
 
   Function LoadResourceString (Index : longint): Shortstring;
 
   begin
     SetLength(Result,LoadString(FindResource(0,Nil,RT_STRING),Index,@Result[1],SizeOf(Result)))
   end;
 
 Var
     I: longint;
 
 begin
   For i:=1 to 3 do
     Writeln (Loadresourcestring(I));
 end.

The call to FindResource searches for the stringtable in the compiled-in resources. The LoadString function then reads the string with index i out of the table, and puts it in a buffer, which can then be used. Both calls are in the windows unit.

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