Calling C++ Unmanaged Class from C#

 

This may be a no-brainer, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

If you have a C++ class in an unmanaged dll what is the best way to call it from C#?

1. You need to wrap the C++ class in a COM object or expose the class through dll exports. Managed code can call methods on COM object through COM Interop. And it can call dll exports through P/Invoke.

2. There is another way to do this using P/Invoke. Here is the sample code from the SDK. The best way to do this is to write a thin wrapper in MC++ around your MFC classes and expose managed interfaces from it to your C# code. If you can use Whidbey, you could even compile your MC++ wrapper and rest of the C# code in same DLL using new linker.    

// ClassMethods.cs

using System;

using System.Text;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public class LibWrap

{

    /*

    class PINVOKELIB_API CTestClass 

    {

        public:

            CTestClass( void );

            int DoSomething( int i );

        private:

            int m_member;

    }; 

    */

    [ DllImport( "..//LIB//PinvokeLib.dll", 

    EntryPoint="?DoSomething@CTestClass@@QAEHH@Z", 

    CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall )]

    public static extern int TestThisCalling( IntPtr ths, int i ); 

    // CTestClass* CreateTestClass();

    [DllImport( "..//LIB//PinvokeLib.dll" )]

    public static extern IntPtr CreateTestClass(); 

    // void DeleteTestClass( CTestClass* instance )

    [ DllImport( "..//LIB//PinvokeLib.dll" )]

    public static extern void DeleteTestClass( IntPtr instance ); 

}

public class App

{

    public static void Main()

    {

        IntPtr instancePtr = LibWrap.CreateTestClass();

        int res = LibWrap.TestThisCalling( instancePtr, 9 ); 

        Console.WriteLine( "/nResult: {0} /n", res );

        LibWrap.DeleteTestClass( instancePtr );

    }

}

Published Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:59 PM by sanpil