Passing a Structure containing an array of String and an array of Integer into a C++ DLL

Question

I'm having problems with marshaling in VB.NET to C++, here's the code :

In the C++ DLL :

struct APP_PARAM
{
    int numData;
    LPCSTR *text;
    int *values;
};

int App::StartApp(APP_PARAM params)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < numLines; i++)
    {
        OutputDebugString(params.text[i]);
    }
}

In VB.NET :

  <StructLayoutAttribute(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
  Public Structure APP_PARAM
    Public numData As Integer
    Public text As System.IntPtr
    Public values As System.IntPtr
  End Structure

  Declare Function StartApp Lib "AppSupport.dll" (ByVal params As APP_PARAM) As Integer

  Sub Main()

    Dim params As APP_PARAM
    params.numData = 3

    Dim text As String() = {"A", "B", "C"}
    Dim textHandle As GCHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(text)
    params.text = GCHandle.ToIntPtr(textHandle)

    Dim values As Integer() = {10, 20, 30}
    Dim valuesHandle As GCHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(values)
    params.values = GCHandle.ToIntPtr(heightHandle)

    StartApp(params)

    textHandle.Free()
    valuesHandle.Free()

  End Sub

I checked the C++ side, the output from the OutputDebugString is garbage, the text array contains random characters. What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

You need to use one of the methods from the Marshal class.

Dim str As String = "Hello World"
Dim ptr as IntPtr = Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi(str)
Try
  SomePInvokeCall(ptr)
Finally
  Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptr)
End Try

Answer 2

GCHandle.Alloc "Allocates a Normal handle for the specified object", which "creates a handle to a managed object ... which prevents the managed object from being collected".

What you're looking for is the methods from System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal, which allow you to do things like copy managed objects to memory accessible by unmanaged code. Unfortunately, according to this, the pointers in your struct make it a little harder to marshal than many other things (in the sense that many other things can be automatically marshalled using the appropriate P/Invoke attributes), but it's still possible. I've tried this out and it works:

APP_PARAM param = new APP_PARAM();
string[] text = new string[] { "A", "B", "C" };
param.numData = text.Length;

// Manually allocate an array of pointers, one for each string.  arr holds the array's address.
IntPtr arr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(IntPtr)) * text.Length);
try
{
  param.text = arr;

  IntPtr[] unmanagedText = new IntPtr[text.Length];
  try
  {
    // Create a null-terminated ANSI string in unmanaged memory for each element in text.
    for (int i = 0; i < text.Length; i++)
      unmanagedText[i] = Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi(text[i]);
    // Copy the addresses of the unmanaged strings into the manually allocated array.
    // I don't know of any way to make an unmanaged copy of a managed array in one call.
    Marshal.Copy(unmanagedText, 0, arr, unmanagedText.Length);

    // param now looks like what the C++ code is expecting (except for the array of int).
    StartApp(param);
  }
  finally
  {
    foreach (IntPtr str in unmanagedText)
      Marshal.FreeHGlobal(str);
  }
}
finally
{
  Marshal.FreeHGlobal(arr);
}

You'll have to have similar allocation/free code for your array of int values, with its own try/finally blocks to make sure FreeHGlobal is called.