Call a C# dll from C++ (MSVC compiler)

Question

I have a C# dll, and I need to call some of its functions from my C++ program (native C++, not C++/CLI).

What is the recommended way of doing it?

Answer 1

Another way (also outlined in the article linked by Matten I believe) is to write the wrapper dll in C++/CLI.

You write a regular C++ class with DLL exports:

#pragma once

#ifdef CSCLIWRAPPER_EXPORTS
#define DLLAPI __declspec(dllexport)
#else 
#define DLLAPI __declspec(dllimport)
#endif

class DLLAPI CsCliWrapper
{
private:
    void *wrap;

public:
    CsCliWrapper();
    virtual ~CsCliWrapper();
};

reference the managed dll in the project, and use it in the implementation:

#include "CsCliWrapper.h"
using namespace System;
using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices;

CsCliWrapper::CsCliWrapper()
{
    CsPlugin^ obj = gcnew CsPlugin();

    wrap = GCHandle::ToIntPtr(GCHandle::Alloc(obj)).ToPointer();
}

CsCliWrapper::~CsCliWrapper()
{
    GCHandle h = GCHandle::FromIntPtr(IntPtr(wrap));
    h.Free();
}

Note however that this approach is not portable, at the moment there are no compilers supporting C++/CLI on linux or OSX.

Answer 2

一种实现方法是创建C＃COM服务器，然后从C ++ COM客户端调用其功能，如MSDN的COM Interop教程所述 。

Answer 3

Another way is to host a CLR in the unmanaged process, an example is outlined in the linked article with examples . This is the solution we prefer because we don't need no COM interop. Another example is given at this MSDN page .