uses Sysutils; var s : AnsiString; begin s := 'Hello'; // tests whether the * in the format specifier allows all // kind of integers; note that the * in the format specifier here // is an incomplete format specification, i.e. it does not change // the length of the result string Format('%*s', [Integer(length(s)), s]); // this is only seemingly equivalent to above, but on 64 bit // machines the default integer type is Int64 Format('%*s', [length(s), s]); // also test QWord Format('%*s', [QWord(length(s)), s]); end.