Calling C# code from C++

Question

I need to be able to invoke arbitrary C# functions from C++. http://www.infoq.com/articles/in-process-java-net-integration suggests using ICLRRuntimeHost::ExecuteInDefaultAppDomain() but this only allows me to invoke methods having this format: int method(string arg)

What is the best way to invoke arbitrary C# functions?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to use COM interop.

Answer 2

Compile your C++ code with the /clr flag. With that, you can call into any .NET code with relative ease.

For example:

#include <tchar.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    System::DateTime now = System::DateTime::Now;
    printf("%d:%d:%d\n", now.Hour, now.Minute, now.Second);

    return 0;
}

Does this count as "C++"? Well, it's obviously not Standard C++...

Answer 3

If you don't care if your C++ program (or a portion of it) gets compiled with the /clr, you can use C++/CLI to simply call any .NET code (as long as you add a reference to it). Try out this article.

EDIT: Here is a nice tutorial

The other route is to make your C# code be exposed as COM.

Answer 4

You could use a COM callable wrapper around your C# code compiled into a DLL.

Answer 5

As an alternate approach, you could use Lua to instantiate the CLR objects, execute, and return the results.