On May 31, 1998 10:53am, MARK LEWIS wrote to JOE MARTIN:

 JM>> Don't kid yourself, Delphi's strings (Object Pascal) are
 JM>> unlimited in length (ie: C style strings)

 ML> they are limited to 64k... TP/BP 7.0's PChar, Delphi's stuff and C...
 ML> all are nul terminated character arrays and their max length is 64k...

Sorry. Not with Delphi's 32 bit Strings.  Those days are over 

Delphi still supports the OLD 255 Strings and now Huge Strings which
can be ANY LENGTH allowed by the system.

If you have the Delphi32 compiler, compile this simple code:

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}  // Compile for console mode only

{$O+}    // Optimize compiler
{$H+}    // Make Default "String" type HUGE strings
         // $H- makes String like old Pascal 255 characters or you
         // can use "ShortString" or give a length, i.e. String[80].
         // You can use AnsiString to force a Huge String as well.

Uses Windows,Classes,SysUtils;

var line       : string;        // Default is Huge because of $H+
    fv         : TFileStream;   // File stream class object
    nlist      : TStringList;   // String List Class object
    i          : integer;       // 32 bit integer

Begin

  //
  // Create a 5 MEG string!  WOW!
  //

  SetLength(Line,5000000);
  Writeln('Length : ',Length(Line));

  // Create a file stream for the nodelist

  fv := TFileStream.Create('y:\nodelist\nodelist.149',fmOpenRead);
  try
    writeln('Nodelist Stream Size : ',fv.size);

    // read the nodelist into a STRING!! WOW!

    SetLength(Line,fv.size);
    fv.ReadBuffer(Line[1],fv.size);
    writeln('Nodelist String Size : ',length(Line));

    // Create a list of Strings. Move the Nodelist String Buffer
    // into the String list!  The StringList object will automatically
    // parse the crlf (or cr) delimiters.

    nlist := TStringList.Create;
    try
      nlist.SetText(pChar(Line));
      writeln('Number of Lines in Nodelist : ',nlist.count);

      // display lines in nodelist for mark lewis

      for i:= 0 to nlist.count-1 do
        begin
          if pos('Mark_Lewis',nlist.strings[i]) > 0 then
             writeln('Mark Node: ',Nlist.Strings[i]);
        end;

    finally
      nlist.free;
    end;

  finally
    fv.free;
  end;

End.

WOW!!!!  and here is the results, in case you don't believe me:

Length : 5000000
Nodelist Stream Size : 2101892
Nodelist String Size : 2101892
Number of Lines in Nodelist : 25614
Mark Node:
,120,RemoteAccess_Help_USA,Sanford_NC,Mark_Lewis,1-919-774-5930,9600,CM,XA,V32
,V42b,ZYX
Mark Node:
Host,3634,Fayetteville_Net,Sanford_NC,Mark_Lewis,1-919-499-2088,9600,CM,XA,V32
b,V42b,H16,V32t,V34,U,NC
Mark Node:
,1,Fayetteville_Net_NEC,Sanford_NC,Mark_Lewis,1-919-499-2088,9600,CM,XA,V32b,V
42b,H16,V32t,V34,U,NEC
Mark Node:
,12,Waldo's_Place_USA,Sanford_NC,Mark_Lewis,1-919-774-5930,9600,CM,XA,V32b,V42
b,H16,V32t,V34
Mark Node:
,202,Clapham_Junction,Bedford,Mark_Lewis,44-1234-213510,9600,CM,V32B,V42B,XX,U
,NEC
Mark Node:
,211,Clapham_Mail_System,Bedford,Mark_Lewis,44-1234-355403,9600,MO,V32B,V42B,X
X

hmmmmmmmmmm, I think I am going to use this nodelist searcher 

Hector Santos/Santronics
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