Long string (AnsiString and UnicodeString) to PChar conversions are not automatic. Some of the differences between strings and PChars can make conversions problematic:

• Long strings are reference-counted, while PChars are not.
• Assigning to a string copies the data, while a PChar is a pointer to memory.
• Long strings are null-terminated and also contain the length of the string and other information, while PChars are simply null-terminated.

Situations in which these differences can cause subtle errors are discussed in the following topics:

• String dependencies
• Returning a PChar local variable
• Passing a local variable as a PChar