delphi: how to to store TCustomFrames and records in one list

Question

I am using a TObjectList<TCustomFrame> to store TCustomFrames. Now i want to store some more information regarding to the TCustomFrame in the same list. A record would be nice.

Which delphi class would you prefer to store TCustomFrames and records in the same list?

The TCustomFrames and records will be added at runtime.

Answer 1

Create a single record to hold all the information:

type 
  TFrameInfo = record
    Frame: TCustomFrame;
    Foo: string;
    Bar: Integer;
  end;

Hold that in a TList<TFrameInfo>.

I note that you were using TObjectList<T> rather than TList<T>. The only good reason for doing that would be if you were setting OwnsObjects to True. But that seems unlikely since I doubt that the list is really in charge of the lifetime of your GUI objects. As a note for the future, if you find yourself using TObjectList<T> with OwnsObjects set to False then you may as well switch to TList<T>.

Now, in case you do need the list to control the lifetime then you'd be best using a class rather than a record for TFrameInfo.

type 
  TFrameInfo = class
  private
    FFrame: TCustomFrame;
    FFoo: string;
    FBar: Integer;
  public
    constructor Create(AFrame: TCustomFrame; AFoo: string; ABar: Integer);
    destructor Destroy; override;
    property Frame: TCustomFrame read FFrame;
    // etc.
  end;

  constructor TFrameInfo.Create(AFrame: TCustomFrame; AFoo: string; ABar: Integer);
  begin
    inherited Create;
    FFrame := AFrame;
    // etc.
  end;

  destructor TFrameInfo.Destroy; 
  begin
    FFrame.Free;
    inherited;
  end;

And then hold this in a TObjectList<TFrameInfo> with OwnsObjects set to True.