Record with Array of itself in Delphi

Question

Does anyone know how to do something like this?

type TFileRecord = record
    Name: String;
    CreationTimeStamp: DWORD;
    Subfiles: Array of TFileRecord;
end;

I am using Delphi 10.4.

Answer 1

In my Delphi 10.4.1 it is certainly possible to have that kind of declaration:

unit TestUnit;

interface

type
  TFileRecord = record
    Name: String;
    CreationTimeStamp: Cardinal; //DWORD;
    Subfiles: Array of TFileRecord;
  end;

Procedure TestTFR;

implementation

Procedure TestTFR;
var
  TFR : TFileRecord;
begin
  SetLength(TFR.SubFiles,2);
  SetLength(TFR.Subfiles[0].Subfiles,2);
end;    

end.

This feature was introduced in Delphi 2009. Before that, the compiler complained about TFileRecord is not yet completely defined.

As discussed in comments, the size of a dynamic array can only be the size of a pointer, which the compiler architects realised at that time. Knowing that, the finalization of the type declaration is of no importance for the single pass compiler.