Is there a native syntax to access the outer function Result variable from inner function in Delphi?

Question

Consider:

function OuterFunc: integer;
  function InnerFunc: integer;
  begin
    // Here I'd like to access the OuterFunc.Result variable
    // for both reading and writing its value
    OuterFunc.Result := OuterFunc.Result + 12;
  end;
begin
end;

Is there a native syntax to access the OuterFunc Result variable inside InnerFunc? Or is the only way to do this to pass it like a parameter, as in the following?

function OuterFunc: integer;
  function InnerFunc(var outerResult: integer): integer;
  begin
  end;
var
  i: integer;
begin
  i := InnerFunc(Result);
end;

Answer 1

You can assign result to functions by assigning to the function name, which actually was the original way in Pascal:

function MyFunc: integer;
begin
  MyFunc := 2;
  // is equal to the following
  Result := 2;
end;

So in your case you can write

function OuterFunc: integer;
  function InnerFunc: integer; 
  begin
    OuterFunc := 12;
  end;
begin
end;

Beware however, that using the function name in a statement block anyware else than on the left side of the assignment operator results in a recursive call, and is therefore different from how the predefined Result works.

In other words, you can not access a previously set value of OuterFunc from within InnerFunc. You would need to use e.g. a local variable in the outer scope defined before InnerFunc to be accessible also from InnerFunc:

function OuterFunc: integer;
var
  OuterResult: integer;

  function InnerFunc: integer; 
  begin
    OuterResult := 0;
    OuterResult := OuterResult + 12;
  end;
begin
  Result := OuterResult;
end;

For more details refer to Function Declarations in the documentation.