Converting array<System::string^> to std::string*

Question

I am new to C++/Cli, actually in the C# project I have string[] which I converted to array, Now I need to pass this unmanaged array into the native CPP file, ie I want to convert this "array" to std::string*. How I can do that. I tried this below:

void functionA(cli::array^varA){

cli::pin_ptr<System::String^>varA_value = &varA[0];
    std::string* varA_value_final = varA_value;

}

But it gives error saying: a value of type cli::pin_ptr cannot be used to initialize entity of type std::string*

Answer 1

The managed class System::String is completely different from the unmanaged class std::string . The classes are completely different, and store completely different data. You cannot get a pointer to one and pretend it's the other.

Iterate over the cli::array<System::String^> , convert each element, and stick the results in a std::vector<std::string> or other unmanaged container. Grab a pointer to the first element. Use marshal_as<std::string>() to convert each element.