Pascal: Completely import a module into current scope

Question

More Pascal woes.

Say I have 2 Units, MainUnit, and ExampleClass.

MainUnit:

Unit MainUnit;

interface

Uses ExampleClass;

function ReturnFive: Integer;

implementation

function ReturnFive: Integer;
begin
  ReturnFive := 5;
end;

begin
end.

ExampleClass:

Unit ExampleClass;

{$mode objfpc}

interface

type 
  ClassThing = Class
    SampleValue: Integer;
  end;


implementation

begin
end.

Now, I'd like to only import MainUnit, but still be able to use ClassThing. MainUnit uses ExampleClass, but ClassThing isn't usable when you import MainUnit.

I don't really want to just use ExampleClass along with MainUnit, I'd prefer to keep it in one uses statement.

How do you do this?

You can't. But you don't have to *use* MainUnit if you only need to access ClassThing of course. — Sertac Akyuz, Nov 18 '12 at 01:36
@SertacAkyuz So you just have to pack everything into one file, or use a bunch of different modules? :( — Name McChange, Nov 18 '12 at 01:38
Well, dunno. Maybe someone posts a more informative answer and the question might become potentially helpful for others too. — Sertac Akyuz, Nov 18 '12 at 01:46

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '12 at 12:20

put

type ClassThing = ExampleCLass.ClassThing;

in the interface of mainunit.

The principle also works for consts, but only "real" ones (not typed ones which are more initialized vars):

const myconst = unitname.myconst;

Nearly all my much used types are similar aliases, so that I can easily move around where they are defined without changing the uses clause in all the businesscode units

Pascal: Completely import a module into current scope

1 Answers1