Also of note...

In Delphi for .Net, there is no difference between virtual and dynamic.

Here is the syntax in question:

function Age: Integer; Abstract; //Does not work.

The above returns the following error:

[Pascal Error] poc_ClassTestsUnit1.pas(23): E2167 Abstract methods must be virtual or dynamic

Here is the correct syntax:

function Age: Integer; Virtual; Abstract; //Optimized for speed and most common.

function Age: Integer; Dynamic; Abstract; //Optimized for size.

For example, here is a complete simple class example:

  TMyClass = class(TObject)
  private
    function Name: String;
  public
    function Age: Integer; Abstract;
  end;

Then in a descendent class, you implement it:

//Class declaration...

TMyClass2 = class(TMyClass)

public

  function Age: Integer;

end;

//Method implementation...

function TMyClass2.Age: Integer;
begin
  Age := 12;
end;

For more information on the history of Pascal Casing:

• History of Pascal Casing by Brad Abrams

Thanks Wes for adding to this code snippet. Mucho appreciated!

Another Delphi candidate to stand in for an associative array is TObjectList. It holds a list of pointers to any object you care to create.  If you have a class with multiple members, you can associate many values - of many different types - in your class instances, then put them in a TObjectList.

One important Boolean propety of TObjectList is OwnsObjects.  If set to True, your TObjectList instance will free the objects it stores when it is freed, as well as upon some other operations (see Delphi help for details). If False, it's up to you to free all the objects - probably before freeing the ObjectList.

The downside (an upside in some cases) to TObjectList is that it has no predefined sorting mechanism, which makes sense, because it really has no idea what it contains.  You'll have to write your own "Compare," a TListSortCompare function.  Again, see Delphi help.