Accessing form public variables .. newbie

Hi All,

Im writing a forcasting application in Delphi7. I have most of it done but need to set some child window attributes from the Main Form.

It is an MDI. The Main Form has control and I want to set a child windows attributes BEFORE IT IS DISPLAYED. But I cannot seem to set the attributed as the compiler says the variable for the child is not yet initialized. How should this be done?

procedure TMyMainForm(...)
Var
Child: TMDIChild;
Begin
// Initialize
Child.m_dtDate := m_MyDate;
// Show
Child := TMDIChild.Create(Application);
End;
End.

Any ideas how to get around this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

One way is to have global variables that you set. Another way is to create the form, set the variables and then call an update function to update controls on the form as required.

Chris,

There is a protected method Loaded() that VCL form classes inherit.

This method is called automatically from the inherited constructor after the form data is loaded, but before it is shown. You can override Loaded() in your child window class and perform any custom initialization there. So, adjusting your code...

procedure TMyMainForm(...)
Var
Child: TMDIChild;
Begin
// Show
Child := TMDIChild.Create(Application);
End;
End;

procedure TMyChildForm.Loaded;
begin
inherited;
m_dtDate:= m_MyDate;
end; // Loaded

If you override the child form constructor, make sure that you call the inherited constructor or Loaded(0 won't get called.

Phil Coveney