call C++ dll from C# without name mangling

[Paulraj G]

Hi All, I am calling a c++ dll from C# application. with out name mangling how can i call c++ function and class from c# application? Thanks in advance.

G.Paulraj

[Wayne Gaylard]

You are going to have to use Interop(System.Runtime.Interopservices).Something to the tune of :-

[Dllimport("your dll")]
public static extern void functionName(parameters);

When I was a coder, we worked on algorithms. Today, we memorize APIs for countless libraries — those libraries have the algorithms - Eric Allman

[Paulraj G]

Hi... thanks for ur quick reply. in .h file i have declared like

__declspec(dllexport) char* BaseClassFunction();

in .CPP file the definition is like

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char* __stdcall ISim::BaseClassFunction()
{
static char* pszCPUType = "derived class function called";
return pszCPUType;
}

from c# i am calling like following...

const String _dllLocation1 = @"D:\Project\Dll.dll";
[DllImport(_dllLocation1)]
static extern String BaseClassFunction();

String Baseclass = BaseClassFunction();
MessageBox.Show(Baseclass.ToString());

the above code is not working... any help will be appricated..

G.Paulraj

[Lost User]

Paulraj G wrote:

the above code is not working.

That is not a very helpful piece of information; exactly what is not working; does the program crash, do you see the wrong results, etc.? You have defined a DLL function as

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char* __stdcall ISim::BaseClassFunction()

and I suspect the ISim:: prefix may be affecting your exported name; you can check with Dependency Walker[^]. Also I am not sure whether a char* returned from C++ will be accepted as a String in C#, you should check the PInvoke rules for marshalling, and also this article[^], and this one[^], by Luc Pattyn[^].

Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman