Passing a two dimentional array from Fortran to C

Question

I am having trouble passing a two dimensional array from Fortran to C. The following is my C function which just displays the array elements on the screen.

#include <stdio.h>
void print2(double *arr , int *n)
{
    int y = *n;
    printf("\n y = %d", y);
    for(int i =0; i<y; i++)
    {
          for (int j = 0; j < y; j++)
              printf("%.6g", *((arr + i*y) + j));
          printf("\n");
    }
}

My Fortran code so far is the following:

program linkFwithC
    use, intrinsic :: iso_c_binding
    implicit none
    real, dimension(3,3)::a
    a(1,1)=1
    a(1,2)=2
    a(1,3)=3
    a(2,1)=4
    a(2,2)=5
    a(2,3)=6
    a(3,1)=7
    a(3,2)=8
    a(3,3)=9

    interface
        subroutine print2(a,n) bind( c )
        use, intrinsic :: iso_c_binding
        type(c_ptr)::a
        integer(C_INT)::n
        end subroutine print2   
    end interface

    call print2(c_loc(a),3)
end program linkFwithC

The way I am linking both files is by creating a static library for the C function and build the .lib file. Once the .lib file is built I add it to the fortran project and run the fortran project. The code runs with no errors and the n value is displayed correctly; However,the array values displayed are all wrong.

Please help !

Thanks, Anas

Answer 1

There are a few issues in the code as [currently] shown.

• The n argument in the Fortran interface for print2 does not have the VALUE attribute, yet the corresponding parameter in the C function is taken by value. Consider adding VALUE to the Fortran declaration.

• The same issue arises with the pointer to the array. The Fortran interface passes a pointer without value, the C function expects a "pointer by value" (as opposed to a pointer to a pointer). Note that there is no need to explicitly use a C_PTR here - you can construct an interoperable interface using the actual type of the array.

• On most platforms a Fortran default REAL is not the same as a C double - consider using the kind constants from ISO_C_BINDING to ensure that the kind of the REAL on the Fortran side matches that of the C.

• C_LOC requires its argument to have the TARGET attribute. Add that attribute to the declaration of the a variable in the main program.

Answer 2

After further research I was able to find a work around this as follow:

The following is my C function:

#include <stdio.h>
void print2(void *p, int n) {
  printf("Array from C is \n");
  double *dptr;
  dptr = (double *)p;
  for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j<n; j++)
      printf("%.6g \t",dptr[i*n+j]);
    printf("\n");
  }
}

The following is my Fortran code:

program linkFwithC
use iso_c_binding
implicit none 
interface
  subroutine my_routine(p,r) bind(c,name='print2')
    import :: c_ptr
    import :: c_int
    type(c_ptr), value :: p
    integer(c_int), value :: r
  end subroutine
end interface


integer,parameter ::n=3
real (c_double), allocatable, target :: xyz(:,:)
real (c_double), target :: abc(3,3)
type(c_ptr) :: cptr
allocate(xyz(n,n))
cptr = c_loc(xyz(1,1))

!Inputing array valyes

xyz(1,1)= 1
xyz(1,2)= 2
xyz(1,3)= 3
xyz(2,1)= 4
xyz(2,2)= 5
xyz(2,3)= 6
xyz(3,1)= 7
xyz(3,2)= 8
xyz(3,3)= 9


call my_routine(cptr,n)
deallocate(xyz)
pause
end program linkFwithC