Using DLL from C#

P

Peter S.

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get access to a selfdeveloped DLL. What I did:

I created a new Classobject in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ZufallArray
{
public class ZufallArray
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ZArray",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static int[] ZArray (int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < anzahl; j++)
{
ZZahl[j]= randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):


Declare Function Zar Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\ZufallArray.dll" _
Alias "ZArray" (ByVal a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal c As Integer)
As Integer()

Sub zarray()
Dim a() As Integer
a = Zar(10, 20, 3)
For i = 1 To UBound(a)
MsgBox a(i)
Next i
End Sub

Excel crashes! Why?

P.S.: I don't want to use the function by using a reference to .... .tlb and
than creating a new class in Excel (in this case the function must be defined
without "static). By the way this is working pretty good.

I want to use the function this way, because if this works, I can use the
function in other applications.

Peter
 
R

RadarEye

Hallo Peter,

I can not recreate your C# DLL file, but dit you register the DLL
file?

Wouter.
 
P

Peter S.

Hallo,

I did not! I don't like to register the DLL because I want to use this DLL
on other machines without a need of administration privileges.

It's not necessary to register the DLL (only possible with ActiveX) if you
use the function inside the DLL with "Declare function ...."

Peter
 
S

Simon Murphy

Peter
It might be worth trying something less ambitious than arrays initially.
What about using your dll just to add 2 numbers and return a double?

VBA uses the __stdcall calling convention rather than __cdecl, but that
should get you a bad calling convention error rather than a crash.

C ints are equivalent to VBA Longs, I suspect that same is true for C#
- that could cause a crash. (a,b,c should be long not integer)

I don't know how arrays are laid out in .net but I can imagine it being
different to C and to what VBA expects.

What specific error are you getting? (access violation?)

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net
 
P

Peter S.

Hallo Simon,

of course I already tried "an incremental approach" to my desired solution:

c#-Code:

[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("Summe")]
public static int Summe(int A, int B, [MarshalAs( UnmanagedType.AnsiBStr)]
ref string os)
{
os = A.ToString() + B.ToString() + " ok";
return A + B;
}

VBA-Code:

Private Declare Function Summe Lib "MyLib.dll" (ByVal A As Long, ByVal B As
Long, ByRef S As String) As Long

Sub test()
Dim S As String
i = Summe(10, 10, S)
MsgBox S
End Sub

Works fine!!!!!!! The string is given back perfectly.

Peter

Simon Murphy said:
Peter
It might be worth trying something less ambitious than arrays initially.
What about using your dll just to add 2 numbers and return a double?

VBA uses the __stdcall calling convention rather than __cdecl, but that
should get you a bad calling convention error rather than a crash.

C ints are equivalent to VBA Longs, I suspect that same is true for C#
- that could cause a crash. (a,b,c should be long not integer)

I don't know how arrays are laid out in .net but I can imagine it being
different to C and to what VBA expects.

What specific error are you getting? (access violation?)

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get access to a selfdeveloped DLL. What I did:

I created a new Classobject in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ZufallArray
{
public class ZufallArray
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ZArray",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static int[] ZArray (int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < anzahl; j++)
{
ZZahl[j]= randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):


Declare Function Zar Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\ZufallArray.dll" _
Alias "ZArray" (ByVal a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal c As Integer)
As Integer()

Sub zarray()
Dim a() As Integer
a = Zar(10, 20, 3)
For i = 1 To UBound(a)
MsgBox a(i)
Next i
End Sub

Excel crashes! Why?

P.S.: I don't want to use the function by using a reference to .... .tlb and
than creating a new class in Excel (in this case the function must be defined
without "static). By the way this is working pretty good.

I want to use the function this way, because if this works, I can use the
function in other applications.

Peter
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
S

Simon Murphy

Did changing your VBA integers to longs help then?

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

Hallo Simon,

of course I already tried "an incremental approach" to my desired solution:

c#-Code:

[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("Summe")]
public static int Summe(int A, int B, [MarshalAs( UnmanagedType.AnsiBStr)]
ref string os)
{
os = A.ToString() + B.ToString() + " ok";
return A + B;
}

VBA-Code:

Private Declare Function Summe Lib "MyLib.dll" (ByVal A As Long, ByVal B As
Long, ByRef S As String) As Long

Sub test()
Dim S As String
i = Summe(10, 10, S)
MsgBox S
End Sub

Works fine!!!!!!! The string is given back perfectly.

Peter

Simon Murphy said:
Peter
It might be worth trying something less ambitious than arrays initially.
What about using your dll just to add 2 numbers and return a double?

VBA uses the __stdcall calling convention rather than __cdecl, but that
should get you a bad calling convention error rather than a crash.

C ints are equivalent to VBA Longs, I suspect that same is true for C#
- that could cause a crash. (a,b,c should be long not integer)

I don't know how arrays are laid out in .net but I can imagine it being
different to C and to what VBA expects.

What specific error are you getting? (access violation?)

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get access to a selfdeveloped DLL. What I did:

I created a new Classobject in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ZufallArray
{
public class ZufallArray
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ZArray",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static int[] ZArray (int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < anzahl; j++)
{
ZZahl[j]= randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):


Declare Function Zar Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\ZufallArray.dll" _
Alias "ZArray" (ByVal a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal c As Integer)
As Integer()

Sub zarray()
Dim a() As Integer
a = Zar(10, 20, 3)
For i = 1 To UBound(a)
MsgBox a(i)
Next i
End Sub

Excel crashes! Why?

P.S.: I don't want to use the function by using a reference to .... .tlb and
than creating a new class in Excel (in this case the function must be defined
without "static). By the way this is working pretty good.

I want to use the function this way, because if this works, I can use the
function in other applications.

Peter
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
P

Peter S.

No! I tried every combination (all integer, all long, some interger and some
long etc).

Peter

Simon Murphy said:
Did changing your VBA integers to longs help then?

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

Hallo Simon,

of course I already tried "an incremental approach" to my desired solution:

c#-Code:

[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("Summe")]
public static int Summe(int A, int B, [MarshalAs( UnmanagedType.AnsiBStr)]
ref string os)
{
os = A.ToString() + B.ToString() + " ok";
return A + B;
}

VBA-Code:

Private Declare Function Summe Lib "MyLib.dll" (ByVal A As Long, ByVal B As
Long, ByRef S As String) As Long

Sub test()
Dim S As String
i = Summe(10, 10, S)
MsgBox S
End Sub

Works fine!!!!!!! The string is given back perfectly.

Peter

Simon Murphy said:
Peter
It might be worth trying something less ambitious than arrays initially.
What about using your dll just to add 2 numbers and return a double?

VBA uses the __stdcall calling convention rather than __cdecl, but that
should get you a bad calling convention error rather than a crash.

C ints are equivalent to VBA Longs, I suspect that same is true for C#
- that could cause a crash. (a,b,c should be long not integer)

I don't know how arrays are laid out in .net but I can imagine it being
different to C and to what VBA expects.

What specific error are you getting? (access violation?)

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net


Peter S. wrote:
Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get access to a selfdeveloped DLL. What I did:

I created a new Classobject in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ZufallArray
{
public class ZufallArray
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ZArray",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static int[] ZArray (int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < anzahl; j++)
{
ZZahl[j]= randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):


Declare Function Zar Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\ZufallArray.dll" _
Alias "ZArray" (ByVal a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal c As Integer)
As Integer()

Sub zarray()
Dim a() As Integer
a = Zar(10, 20, 3)
For i = 1 To UBound(a)
MsgBox a(i)
Next i
End Sub

Excel crashes! Why?

P.S.: I don't want to use the function by using a reference to .... .tlb and
than creating a new class in Excel (in this case the function must be defined
without "static). By the way this is working pretty good.

I want to use the function this way, because if this works, I can use the
function in other applications.

Peter
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
S

Simon Murphy

Peter
Did you try passing the array as a variant?

Or maybe passing the array in by ref from VB as a parameter and just
populate the array in C#?

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

No! I tried every combination (all integer, all long, some interger and some
long etc).

Peter

Simon Murphy said:
Did changing your VBA integers to longs help then?

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net

Hallo Simon,

of course I already tried "an incremental approach" to my desired solution:

c#-Code:

[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("Summe")]
public static int Summe(int A, int B, [MarshalAs( UnmanagedType.AnsiBStr)]
ref string os)
{
os = A.ToString() + B.ToString() + " ok";
return A + B;
}

VBA-Code:

Private Declare Function Summe Lib "MyLib.dll" (ByVal A As Long, ByVal B As
Long, ByRef S As String) As Long

Sub test()
Dim S As String
i = Summe(10, 10, S)
MsgBox S
End Sub

Works fine!!!!!!! The string is given back perfectly.

Peter

:

Peter
It might be worth trying something less ambitious than arrays initially.
What about using your dll just to add 2 numbers and return a double?

VBA uses the __stdcall calling convention rather than __cdecl, but that
should get you a bad calling convention error rather than a crash.

C ints are equivalent to VBA Longs, I suspect that same is true for C#
- that could cause a crash. (a,b,c should be long not integer)

I don't know how arrays are laid out in .net but I can imagine it being
different to C and to what VBA expects.

What specific error are you getting? (access violation?)

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net


Peter S. wrote:
Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get access to a selfdeveloped DLL. What I did:

I created a new Classobject in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ZufallArray
{
public class ZufallArray
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ZArray",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static int[] ZArray (int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < anzahl; j++)
{
ZZahl[j]= randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):


Declare Function Zar Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\ZufallArray.dll" _
Alias "ZArray" (ByVal a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal c As Integer)
As Integer()

Sub zarray()
Dim a() As Integer
a = Zar(10, 20, 3)
For i = 1 To UBound(a)
MsgBox a(i)
Next i
End Sub

Excel crashes! Why?

P.S.: I don't want to use the function by using a reference to .... .tlb and
than creating a new class in Excel (in this case the function must be defined
without "static). By the way this is working pretty good.

I want to use the function this way, because if this works, I can use the
function in other applications.

Peter
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
R

RadarEye

Hi Peter,

I have recreated yout problem.
I have tried to create a log-file from the DLL, but dit not succeed in
this.

Why are you ussing the DLL.
Have you considered creating this fucntion in a separate module in
your Excel file and export it.
You can import it in other Excel File which need the same function.

Option Explicit
Option Base 1

Public Function FilledArray(intBegin As Integer, _
intEnde As Integer, _
intAnzahl As Integer) As Variant
ReDim intArray(intAnzahl) As Integer
Dim intWiederholung As Integer

Randomize Timer
For intWiederholung = 0 To intAnzahl - 1
intArray(intWiederholung) = intBegin + _
Fix(Rnd() * (intEnde - intBegin))
Next

FilledArray = intArray
End Function

HTH,
Wouter
 
P

Peter S.

Hi,

thanks a lot for your coding! Why didn't I do that in the way you show? I
use Unify Gupta SQLBase which is a very stable database, but it's a little
bit tricky to use some function there. A function to get random numbers is
not available there. So I have to code a function (C#, C++, VB6 etc.) and
store it in a DLL. If I can use the function in VBA by "Declare function
......." I can use it in SQLBase.

In the meantime I got the result:

Code in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace classtest
{
public class test
{
[ExportDllAttribute.ExportDll("ArrayTest",
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.SafeArray, SafeArraySubType =
VarEnum.VT_I4)]
public static int[] ArrayTest(int beginn, int ende, int anzahl)
{
int[] ZZahl = new int[anzahl+1];
Random randObj = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < ZZahl.Length; j++)
{
ZZahl[j] = randObj.Next(beginn, ende);
}
return ZZahl;
}
}
}

I exported the function with "ExportDLL"
(http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/DllExport.aspx) and checked the result
with Dependency Walker.

I used the function with VBA (Excel):

Private Declare Function classTArray Lib _
"C:\........\bin\Release\classtarray.dll" _
Alias "ArrayTest" (ByVal nAnfang As Long, ByVal nEnde As Long, ByVal nAnzahl
As Long) As Long()

Sub test()
Dim x() As Long
x = classTArray(0, 100, 10)
For i = 0 To 10
MsgBox x(i)
Next i
End Sub

Works fine!

Peter
 

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