Home/ Questions/Q 937841
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-15T21:32:33+00:00

I’ve seen a couple of examples such as this: [DllImport(user32.dll)] static extern bool TranslateMessage([In]

  • 0

I’ve seen a couple of examples such as this:

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool TranslateMessage([In] ref Message lpMsg);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr DispatchMessage([In] ref Message lpmsg);

But, what I don’t understand is why someone would do that as apposed to just referencing the DLL like they do other libraries? The MSDN states: “The DllImport attribute is very useful when reusing existing unmanaged code in a managed application. For instance, your managed application might need to make calls to the unmanaged WIN32 API.” But, is that saying it is not useful to reference an unmanaged dll or impossible otherwise?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    “But, is that saying it is not useful
    to reference an unmanaged dll or
    impossible otherwise?”

    Yes, exactly so. What you’re thinking of as ‘referencing a DLL’ is actually ‘referencing a .NET assembly’ – it just so happens that the most common way of packaging the kind of assemblies one tends to reference is in a DLL.

    DLLImport is entirely about importing ‘traditional DLLs’ – i.e. ones which export all their methods using the original Windows DLL export mechanism.

    Think of DLLImport as actually being called ‘UnmanagedImport’, and things might be clearer.

    • 0