Editing Boxing (computer programming) (section)

==Type helpers==
Modern [[Object Pascal]] has yet another way to perform operations on simple types, close to boxing, called type helpers in [[FreePascal]] or record helpers in [[Delphi (programming language)|Delphi]] and [[FreePascal]] in Delphi mode.<br>
The dialects mentioned are Object Pascal compile-to-native languages, and so miss some of the features that C# and Java can implement. Notably run-time [[type inference]] on strongly typed variables.<br>
But the feature is related to boxing.<br>
It allows the programmer to use constructs like
<syntaxhighlight lang="pascal">
{$ifdef fpc}{$mode delphi}{$endif}
uses sysutils;  // this unit contains wraps for the simple types
var
  x:integer=100;
  s:string;
begin
  s:= x.ToString;
  writeln(s);
end.
</syntaxhighlight>