Question

I’m trying to import some functions from 32 bit and 64 bit DLLs written in unmanaged C++ into my C# project. As a sample, I did this:

C++ DLL function

long mult(int a, int b) {
    return ((long) a)*((long) b);
}

C# code

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

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
    class DynamicDLLImport
    {
        private IntPtr ptrToDll;
        private IntPtr ptrToFunctionToCall;

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr LoadLibrary(string dllToLoad);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr GetProcAddress(IntPtr hModule, string procedureName);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern bool FreeLibrary(IntPtr hModule);

        [UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
        private delegate int Multiply(int a, int b);
        private Multiply multiply;

        public DynamicDLLImport(string dllName)
        {
            ptrToDll = LoadLibrary(dllName);
            // TODO: Error handling.

            ptrToFunctionToCall = GetProcAddress(ptrToDll, "mult");
            // TODO: Error handling.

            // HERE ARGUMENTNULLEXCEPTION
            multiply = (Multiply)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(ptrToFunctionToCall, typeof(Multiply));
        }

        public int mult_func(int a, int b)
        {
            return multiply(a, b);
        }

        ~DynamicDLLImport()
        {
            FreeLibrary(ptrToDll);
        }
    }

    class DLLWrapper
    {
        private const string Sixtyfour = "c:\\Users\\Hattenn\\Documents\\Visual Studio 2010\\Projects\\ConsoleApplication2\\ConsoleApplication2\\easyDLL0_64.dll";
        private const string Thirtytwo = "c:\\Users\\Hattenn\\Documents\\Visual Studio 2010\\Projects\\ConsoleApplication2\\ConsoleApplication2\\easyDLL0.dll";
//        [DllImport(Sixtyfour)]
//        public static extern int mult(int a, int b);
        [DllImport(Thirtytwo)]
        public static extern int mult(int a, int b);
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int a = 5;
            int b = 4;
            DynamicDLLImport dllimp = new DynamicDLLImport("easyDLL0.dll");

            Console.WriteLine(DLLWrapper.mult(a, b));
            //Console.WriteLine(dllimp.mult_func(a, b));

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

I can’t seem to get it to work. Here are the error messages that I get:

1. When I use the DLLWrapper class with the 32 bit DLL file I get “DLLNotFoundException”, but the DLL file is exactly in that path.
2. When I use the DLLWrapper class with the 64 bit DLL file and change the “Platform Target” property to “x64” I get the same “DLLNotFoundException”, if I try to build with “x86” then I get “BadImageException”.
3. When I use the DynamicDLLImport class, I always get “ArgumentNullException” at the line commented with “HERE ARGUMENTNULLEXCEPTION” in the code.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The problem turned out to be that the dll was deployed in debug mode and not in a correct way. When it was deployed in release mode, everything seemed to work fine. Anyone having a similar problem should know that compiling the dll in debug mode and just copying it to another computer is not the right way to do it.