type identifier expected fpc compiler error

Question

I have the following function which is supposed to split a string into a string array (I'm using Geany IDE and fpc compiler):

   function Split(const str: string; const separator: string): array of string;
var
i, n: integer;
strline, strfield: string;
  begin
 n:= Occurs(str, separator);
 SetLength(Result, n + 1);
 i := 0;
 strline:= str;
 repeat
if Pos(separator, strline) > 0 then
begin
  strfield:= Copy(strline, 1, Pos(separator, strline) - 1);
  strline:= Copy(strline, Pos(separator, strline) + 1, 
Length(strline) - pos(separator,strline));
end
else
begin
  strfield:= strline;
  strline:= '';
end;
Result[i]:= strfield;
Inc(i);
until strline= '';
if Result[High(Result)] = '' then SetLength(Result, Length(Result) -1);
end;

The compiler reports an error:

 calc.pas(24,61) Error: Type identifier expected
 calc.pas(24,61) Fatal: Syntax error, ";" expected but "ARRAY" found

As far as I can see the syntax is correct, what is the problem here?

Answer 1

Compiler is telling you that you cannot return an untyped dynamic array. You can declare f.i.

type TStringArray = array of string; 

and you can return a TStringArray from the function. Note that, a variable declared as TStringArray will not be compatible with a similarly declared but differently typed array, for instance with type TOtherStringArray = array of string.