Any
`Any` is not a real type, but it is used as a placeholder in various ways.
Syntax
`
identifier As Any Pointer|Ptr
` or`
Dim identifier As datatype = Any
` or`
Declare { Sub | Function } identifier ( [ ..., ] ByRef identifier As Any [ , ... ] )
`
Description
`Any` can be used in three different contexts: pointers; variable initialization; and to indicate an unknown data type in a function declaration.
`1)` A special pointer type called the `Any Pointer` allows pointing to any variable type. If you cast it to an `Integer Pointer`, it will operate on the subject as though it were an `Integer`, etc.
You may not create variables of the type `Any`. It is illegal to dereference an `Any Pointer`, but an `Any Pointer Pointer` may be dereferenced, because doing so will result in an `Any Pointer`. Trying to dereference that resulting `Any Pointer` would be illegal.
This should not be confused with `Variant`, a Visual Basic data type which can contain any type of variable. FreeBASIC does not natively support the `Variant` type.
`2)` `Any` can be used as a fake initializer to disable the default initialization to `0` of the variables. This may save time in critical sections of the programs. It is up to the program to fill the variables with significant data. You may recognize this as the default behavior of C.
`3)` `Any` can be used in function prototypes (in a `Declare` statement) with `ByRef` arguments to disable the compiler checking for the correct type of the variable passed. This use of `Any` is deprecated and it is only there for compatibility with QB, where it was the only way of passing arrays as arguments.
Example
`
Declare Sub echo(ByVal x As Any Ptr) '' echo will accept any pointer type
Dim As Integer a(0 To 9) = Any '' this variable is not initialized
Dim As Double d(0 To 4)
Dim p As Any Ptr
Dim pa As Integer Ptr = @a(0)
Print "Not initialized ";
echo pa '' pass to echo a pointer to integer
Dim pd As Double Ptr = @d(0)
Print "Initialized ";
echo pd '' pass to echo a pointer to double
p = pa '' assign to p a pointer to integer
p = pd '' assign to p a pointer to double
Sleep
Sub echo (ByVal x As Any Ptr)
Dim As Integer i
For i = 0 To 39
'echo interprets the data in the pointer as bytes
Print Cast(UByte Ptr, x)[i] & " ";
Next
Print
End Sub
`
`
'Example of ANY disabling the variable type checking
Declare Sub echo (ByRef a As Any) '' ANY disables the checking for the type of data passed to the function
Dim x As Single
x = -15
echo x '' Passing a single to a function that expects an integer. The compiler does not complain!!
Sleep
Sub echo (ByRef a As Integer)
Print Hex(a)
End Sub
`
Dialect Differences

- Not available in the -lang qb dialect.

Differences from QB

- Pointers and initializers are new to FreeBASIC.

See also

- `Dim`
- `Declare`