Return C++ array to C#

Question

I can\'t seem to figure out how to return an array from an exported C++ DLL to my C# program. The only thing I\'ve found from googling was using Marshal.Copy() to copy the a

Answer 1

I have implemented the solution Sriram has proposed. In case someone wants it here it is.

In C++ you create a DLL with this code:

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int* test() 
{
    int len = 5;
    int * arr=new int[len+1];
    arr[0]=len;
    arr[1]=1;
    arr[2]=2;
    arr[3]=3;
    arr[4]=4;
    arr[5]=5;
        return arr;
}

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int ReleaseMemory(int* pArray)
{
    delete[] pArray;
    return 0;
}

The DLL will be called InteropTestApp.

Then you create a console application in C#.

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

namespace DLLCall
{
    class Program
    {
        [DllImport("C:\\Devs\\C++\\Projects\\Interop\\InteropTestApp\\Debug\\InteropTestApp.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr test();

        [DllImport("C:\\Devs\\C++\\Projects\\Interop\\InteropTestApp\\Debug\\InteropTestApp.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
        public static extern int ReleaseMemory(IntPtr ptr);

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            IntPtr ptr = test();
            int arrayLength = Marshal.ReadInt32(ptr);
            // points to arr[1], which is first value
            IntPtr start = IntPtr.Add(ptr, 4);
            int[] result = new int[arrayLength];
            Marshal.Copy(start, result, 0, arrayLength);

            ReleaseMemory(ptr);

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

result now contains the values 1,2,3,4,5.

Hope that helps.