C++ DLL Objects accessed from C#

Because there is a few things that c# cannot do compared to c++, e.g. cpu/memory management. And also there is probably allot of dll’s out there are still required for some events, c# is able to communicate with these files and use there functions within the c# language.

To create an dll within Visual Studio 2005 within the language c++, if you do the following

1. New project -> c++ -> empty project
2. Enter project name (e.g. hellocdll)
3. Right click source files ( in the solution explorer) add-> new item
enter an cpp filename.
4, Right click on the main project heading in the solution explorer -> properties
configuration properties->general inner screen project defaults -> configuration type, alter to dynamic library (.dll)
5. Copy and paste code and then compile.

#include <stdio.h>
 
extern "C"
{
  __declspec(dllexport) void DisplayMessageFromDLL()
  {
              printf ("Hi From the C DLL!\n");
  }
 
  __declspec(dllexport) int DisplayValueAndReturn(int i)
  {
         printf("Value %i\n", i);
         return i+2;
  }
}

The extern “C” means that the references within the code are going to be available externally and marco __declsepc(dllexport) is for the MS compile to inform that functions are to be available within an dll file.

To create an c# project to communicate with the above dll

1. New project -> c# -> empty project
2. Enter project name (e.g. hellodlltest)
3. Right click on the project name ( in the solution explorer) add-> new item
select class and enter a filename
4. Copy and paste the code and then compile. (you may need to change the Dllimport to the dll file name that has been created from the c dll project)

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;     // DLL support
 
namespace hellodlltest
{
    class hellodllC
    {
        [DllImport("hellocdll.dll")]
        public static extern void DisplayMessageFromDLL();
 
        [DllImport("hellocdll.dll")]
        public static extern int DisplayValueAndReturn(int i);
 
        static void Main ()
           {
                  Console.WriteLine ("C# program 'talking' to an C DLL");
            DisplayMessageFromDLL();
            Console.WriteLine(DisplayValueAndReturn(3).ToString());
           Console.ReadLine()
           }
    }
}

5. Copy the dll file from the debug directory of the c++ created dll project and place into the created bin/debug directory for this c# project