Short String Types A string occupies as many bytes as its maximum length plus one. The first byte contains the current dynamic length
of the string, and the following bytes contain the characters of the string.
The length byte and the characters are considered unsigned values. Maximum string length is 255 characters plus
a length byte (
string[255]
).
Note: On the .NET platform, the short string type is implemented as an array of unsigned bytes.
Long String Types A long string variable occupies four bytes of memory which contain a pointer to a dynamically allocated string. When
a long string variable is empty (contains a zero-length string), the string pointer is nil and no dynamic memory is
associated with the string variable. For a nonempty string value, the string pointer points to a dynamically allocated
block of memory that contains the string value in addition to a 32-bit length indicator and a 32-bit reference count.
The table below shows the layout of a long-string memory block.
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