The runtime library provides many specialized string-handling routines specific to a string type. These are routines for strings (AnsiString and UnicodeString), wide strings (WideString), and null-terminated strings (PChars). Routines that deal with null-terminated strings use the null-termination to determine the length of the string. There are no categories of routines listed for ShortString types. However, some built-in compiler routines deal with the ShortString type. These include, for example, the Low and High standard functions. For more details about the various string types, see the Delphi Language Guide. 

The following topics provide an overview of many of the string-handling routines in the runtime library:

• Commonly used long string routines
• Commonly used routines for null-terminated strings
• Wide character routines