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Marshaling Struct Array with Strings Between c# and c++. Strings are empty

I am having the most difficult time marshaling this struct between C# and C++.
What makes it very hard to troubleshoot is that SOMETIMES the strings are populated with data (wtf), but most of the time they are not.
I've tried sending over an Array of structs as well as a IntPtr, but the results are similar, the strings in the struct are almost always empty and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong in the marshaling. The code is posted below. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit***
Turns out the problem was on the C++ side and all the marshaling stuff was correct. Thanks for the tip Hans. ***
C++:
#pragma pack (push, 1)
typedef struct
{
char FirmwareVers[FS_MAX_FIRMWARE_VER];
char SerialNum[FS_MAX_SERIAL_NUM];
char HardwareVers[FS_MAX_HW_VER];
ULONG StatusFlags;
int LMIndex;
} FS_LMON_STATUS, *PFS_LMON_STATUS;
DllExport int _stdcall FS_GetLMs(PFS_LMON_STATUS pLaunchMonInfo, int MaxLaunchMons, int *pNumLaunchMons)
{
int Cnt;
FS_LMON_STATUS LMStatus;
if(!g_IsInitalized)
return FS_NOT_INITALIZED;
*pNumLaunchMons = 0;
if(MaxLaunchMons == 0)
return FS_ERROR;
for(Cnt = 0; Cnt < MAX_LM_CONNECTIONS; Cnt++)
{
if(g_CreatedClasses.pLMList->GetLMStatus(Cnt, &LMStatus) != FS_SUCCESS)
continue;
if(LMStatus.LMIndex != INVALID_LM_INDEX)
{
memcpy(pLaunchMonInfo, &LMStatus, sizeof(LMStatus));
pLaunchMonInfo++;
(*pNumLaunchMons)++;
MaxLaunchMons--;
if(MaxLaunchMons == 0)
{
return FS_SUCCESS;
}
}
}
return FS_SUCCESS;
}
C#:
[DllImport("FSADLL", SetLastError = false)]
private static extern int FS_GetLMs([Out] IntPtr pLaunchMonInfo, int MaxLaunchMons, ref int pNumLaunchMons);
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)] //, Size = 38)]
public struct FS_LMON_STATUS
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = FS_MAX_FIRMWARE_VER)] //10 bytes
public string FirmwareVers;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = FS_MAX_SERIAL_NUM)] // 15 bytes
public string SerialNum;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = FS_MAX_HW_VER)] // 5 bytes
public string HardwareVers;
public uint StatusFlags; //4 bytes
public int LMIndex; // identifies which index //4 bytes
}
const int max_launch_monitors = 8;
FS_LMON_STATUS[] dev_info = new FS_LMON_STATUS[max_launch_monitors];
int num_launch_monitors = 0;
IntPtr pAddr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(max_launch_monitors * Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS)));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(dev_info, pAddr, false);
int result = FS_GetLMs(pAddr, max_launch_monitors, ref num_launch_monitors);
UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Result of FS_GetLMs: " + result);
FS_LMON_STATUS[] device_info = new FS_LMON_STATUS[max_launch_monitors];
//Marshal.Copy(pAddr, device_info, (int)0, num_launch_monitors * (int)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS)));
//Marshal.ReadIntPtr(pAddr, 0);
//device_info = (FS_LMON_STATUS[]) Marshal.PtrToStructure(Marshal.AllocHGlobal(max_launch_monitors * Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS[]))), typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS[]));
if (num_launch_monitors > 0)
UnityEngine.Debug.Log("GC2 Device Found.");
else // If there is no devices found, remove the previous device from the holder variable
GC2Device = null;
for (int i = 0; i < num_launch_monitors; i++)
{
device_info[i] = (FS_LMON_STATUS)Marshal.PtrToStructure(pAddr, typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS));
pAddr = new IntPtr(Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS)) + pAddr.ToInt64());
}
//*** There will only ever be 1 device in the list until the old SDK is fixed ***
for (int lm_index = 0; lm_index < num_launch_monitors; lm_index++)
{
if (device_info[lm_index].StatusFlags != LM_STATUS_DISCONNECTED)
{
UnityEngine.Debug.Log("device_info.SerialNum: " + device_info[lm_index].SerialNum);
//assign each LM to a LM data structure
LaunchMonitor logical_device = new LaunchMonitor(inst);
logical_device.mLaunchMonitorType = LaunchMonitorType.LAUNCH_MONITOR_TYPE_GC2;
logical_device.mConnectionType = ConnectionType.USB_CONNECTION;
IntPtr pnt = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(device_info[lm_index]));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(device_info[lm_index], pnt, false);
//Marshal.Copy(device_info[lm_index], dv_info, 0, (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(FS_LMON_STATUS)));
logical_device.mConnectionToken = pnt;
//GC2Devices.Add(logical_device);
logical_device.Serial = logical_device.GetSerialNumber();
GC2Device = logical_device;
}
}

Turns out the problem was on the C++ side and all the marshaling stuff was correct. Thanks for the tip Hans.

C++ Struct in C#

I'm using a DLL written in C++ in my C# project by using DllImport and one of the functions I'm using looks like this:
[DllImport("dds.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
private static extern int Par(
ddTableResults2 tableResult,
ref parResults ParResult,
int vul
);
The parResults struct is defined in C++ like this:
struct parResults {
/* index = 0 is NS view and index = 1
is EW view. By 'view' is here meant
which side that starts the bidding. */
char parScore[2][16];
char parContractsString[2][128];
};
The start of the C++ function
int STDCALL Par(struct ddTableResults * tablep, struct parResults *presp,
int vulnerable)
How should I define the above struct in C# to able to send that struct as en reference into the DLL function?
This is what I have tried but don't work at all and I just get a Access Violation Error
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct parResults
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 32)]
public char[,] parScore;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 256)]
public char[,] parContractsString;
public parResults(int x)
{
parScore = new char[2,16];
parContractsString = new char[2,128];
}
}

This is quite a tricky struct to marshal in C#. There are various ways to attempt it, but I think that it will be cleanest to represent the character arrays as byte arrays and marshal to and from strings by hand. Here is a demonstration of what I mean:
C++
#include <cstring>
struct parResults {
char parScore[2][16];
char parContractsString[2][128];
};
extern "C"
{
__declspec(dllexport) void foo(struct parResults *res)
{
strcpy(res->parScore[0], res->parContractsString[0]);
strcpy(res->parScore[1], res->parContractsString[1]);
}
}
C#
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
class parResults
{
private const int parScoreCount = 2;
private const int parScoreLen = 16;
private const int parContractsStringCount = 2;
private const int parContractsStringLen = 128;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray,
SizeConst = parScoreCount * parScoreLen)]
private byte[] parScoreBuff;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray,
SizeConst = parContractsStringCount * parContractsStringLen)]
private byte[] parContractsStringBuff;
public string getParScore(int index)
{
string str = Encoding.Default.GetString(parScoreBuff,
index * parScoreLen, parScoreLen);
int len = str.IndexOf('\0');
if (len != -1)
str = str.Substring(0, len);
return str;
}
public void setParScore(int index, string value)
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(value);
int len = Math.Min(bytes.Length, parScoreLen);
Array.Copy(bytes, 0, parScoreBuff, index * parScoreLen, len);
Array.Clear(parScoreBuff, index * parScoreLen + len,
parScoreLen - len);
}
public string parContractsString(int index)
{
string str = Encoding.Default.GetString(parContractsStringBuff,
index * parContractsStringLen, parContractsStringLen);
int len = str.IndexOf('\0');
if (len != -1)
str = str.Substring(0, len);
return str;
}
public void setParContractsString(int index, string value)
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(value);
int len = Math.Min(bytes.Length, parContractsStringLen);
Array.Copy(bytes, 0, parContractsStringBuff,
index * parContractsStringLen, len);
Array.Clear(parContractsStringBuff,
index * parContractsStringLen + len,
parContractsStringLen - len);
}
public parResults()
{
parScoreBuff = new byte[parScoreCount * parScoreLen];
parContractsStringBuff =
new byte[parContractsStringCount * parContractsStringLen];
}
};
[DllImport(#"...", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
static extern void foo([In,Out] parResults res);
static void Main(string[] args)
{
parResults res = new parResults();
res.setParContractsString(0, "foo");
res.setParContractsString(1, "bar");
foo(res);
Console.WriteLine(res.getParScore(0));
Console.WriteLine(res.getParScore(1));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Here I've used a class to represent the struct. Since a class in C# is a reference, we don't declare the parameters of that type with ref. I've also used __cdecl for convenience to avoid having to work out what the decorated name of the function would be. But your library used __stdcall and so you need to stick to that.
The class demonstrates sending data in both directions. You could probably simplify the code if the data flow was more restricted.

Marshal struct from C to C#

EDIT: I oversimplified my example... In the real code I was assigning values to strMyStringx without correctly using wcscpy_s, so instead of assigning the values I was just passing the pointer, which was out of scope by the time the values were being marshaled into managed code...
I'm trying to marshal a struct with three string properties from C to C#, but I can't get the definition of the struct right in C#. All of the properties print as garbage. Am I marshaling wrong or do my properties have the wrong type?
My custom structure:
typedef struct _MY_STRUCT_STRING {
LPWSTR strMyString1;
LPWSTR strMyString2;
LPWSTR strMyString3;
}MY_STRUCT_STRING, *PMY_STRUCT_STRING;
My C function returns an array of pointers to this struct:
bool bEnumerateString(OUT LONG &i_arr_size, OUT PMY_STRUCT_STRING* &pArrStringStruct)
{
// [...] function simplified to demonstrate building a pointer to an array of struct*
long i_arr_size = 3
PMY_STRUCT_STRING *ptr_arr_string = (PMY_STRUCT_STRING *)malloc(sizeof(PMY_STRUCT_STRING)* i_arr_size);
for (int i = 0; i < i_arr_size; i++) {
ptr_arr_string[i] = (PMY_STRUCT_STRING)malloc(sizeof(MY_STRUCT_STRING));
ptr_arr_string[i]->strMyString1 = L"String 1"; // This would work. In the real code I was assigning values from another array and mistakenly passed the pointer rather than doing wcscpy_s
ptr_arr_string[i]->strMyString2 = L"String 2";
ptr_arr_string[i]->strMyString3 = L"String 3";
}
pArrStringStruct = ptr_arr_string;
return true;
}
C#:
//Import the DLL with my function
[DllImport("My.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, EntryPoint = "bEnumerateString")]
internal static extern bool bEnumerateString(out long count, out IntPtr pArrStringStruct);
// Define the C# equivalent of the C struct
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
internal struct MY_STRUCT_STRING
{
[MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)]
public string strMyString1;
[MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)]
public string strMyString1;
[MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)]
public string strMyString1;
}
[...]
// Code to marshal (try... catch etc removed for succinctness)
IntPtr pArrStruct = IntPtr.Zero;
long lCount = 0;
bool bResult = false;
bResult = bEnumerateString(out lCount, out pArrStruct);
if (!bResult)
{
// Marshal to deref pointer
IntPtr[] pArrStructList = new IntPtr[lCount];
for (ulong i = 0; i < (ulong)lCount; i++)
{
pArrStructList[i] = Marshal.ReadIntPtr(pArrStruct, Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(IntPtr)) * (int)i);
}
// Marshal pointers to struct
var lstMyStringStrct = new List<MY_STRUCT_STRING>(pArrStructList.Length);
foreach (IntPtr ptr in pArrStructList)
{
lstMyStringStrct.Add((MY_STRUCT_STRING)Marshal.PtrToStructure(ptr, typeof(MY_STRUCT_STRING)));
}
// Enumerate struct
foreach (MY_STRUCT_STRING myStr in lstMyStringStrct)
{
// All of these outputs are garbage
Console.WriteLine("strMyString1: " + myStr.strMyString1);
Console.WriteLine("strMyString2: " + myStr.strMyString2);
Console.WriteLine("strMyString3: " + myStr.strMyString3);
}
}

I see one problem. You're C++ structure uses LPWSTR (pointers) whereas you're C# code is expecting fixed size char arrays.
Change your strings from:
[MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)]
public string strMyString1;
which would be used when the C++ structure was defined like:
char strMyString1[8];
to:
[MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
public string strMyString1;

Marshal a C struct containing a variable length array

I would like to marshal a C struct with a variable-length array back to C# but so far I can't get anything better than a pointer-to-struct representation and a pointer to float.
Unmanaged representation:
typedef float smpl_t;
typedef struct {
uint_t length; /**< length of buffer */
smpl_t *data; /**< data vector of length ::fvec_t.length */
} fvec_t;
Managed representation:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public unsafe struct fvec_t1
{
public uint length;
public float* data;
}
[DllImport("libaubio-4.dll", EntryPoint = "new_fvec", PreserveSig = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi,
CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern unsafe fvec_t1* new_fvec1(uint length);
What I would like is to have a .NET style array, where data would be float[] but if I do change the struct to the form below I do get Cannot take the address of, get the size of, or declare a pointer to a managed type in the external function above.
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public unsafe struct fvec_t1
{
public uint length;
public float[] data;
}
Apparently, it is not possible to a have a variable-length array marshalled back as-is, is this correct or is it there still a way to achieve this ?

short answer
you can't marshal variable length array as an array , because Without knowing the size, the interop marshalling service cannot marshal the array elements
but if you know the size it will be like below:
int arr[15]
you will be able to marshal it like this:
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray, SizeConst=15)] int[] arr
if you don't know the length of the array and this is what you want
you can convert it to intprt and deal with inptr but first you need to create 2 structs
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, Pack = 1)]
struct fvec_t1
{
public uint whatever;
public int[] data;
}
the other one like below:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, Pack = 1)]
struct fvec_t2{
public uint whatever;
}
create a function to initialize the array like below
private static int[] ReturnIntArray()
{
int [] myInt = new int[30];
for (int i = 0; i < myInt.length; i++)
{
myInt[i] = i + 1;
}
return myInt;
}
instantiate the first struct
fvec_t1 instance = new fvec_t1();
instance.whatever=10;
instance.data= ReturnIntArray();
instantiate the second struct
fvec_t2 instance1 = new fvec_t2();
instance1.whatever = instance.whatever
dynamically allocate space for fvec_t2 struct with extended space for data array
IntPtr ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(fvec_t2)) + Instance.data.Length);
Transfer the existing field values of fvec_t2 to memory space pointed to by ptr
Marshal.StructureToPtr(instance1, ptr, true);
Calculate the offset of data array field which should be at the end of an fvec_t2
struct
int offset = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(fvec_t2));
get memory address of data array field based on the offset.
IntPtr address = new IntPtr(ptr.ToInt32() + offset);
copy data to ptr
Marshal.Copy(instance.data, 0, address, instance.data.Length);
do the call
bool success = dllfunction(ptr);
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptr);
ptr = IntPtr.Zero;

In the above case I'd definitely use the SizeParamIndex.
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct fvec_t1
{
uint length;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray, SizeParamIndex = 0)] float[] data;
}
Good luck.

Reading Named Pipe Data sent from a VC++ 6.0 dll into embeded structures in c#

I have an old client side application that is writing to named pipes using a VC 6.0 dll, and I have been asked to write an C# application to read the named pipe and process the request. I am able to receive the data in a byte array, but can't get the data in the pipe to match with the structures i have defined in C#.
old C struct
typedef struct
{
WORD WtYPE;
AB objEmbededStruct1;
BB objEmbededStruct2;
char szString[13];
union
{
char szString1[25];
char szSTring2[45];
char szString3[134];
}
BOOL bExist;
} myStruct1;
typedef struct
{
char szThisString1[2];
int iFlag1;
char szThisString2[11];
}AB;
typedef struct
{
HANDLE hEvents[2];
DWORD dw;
int ithisFlag;
}BB;
I have tried parsing the byte array, but the data is not where I expect it to be. For instance, the first string in the first embedded structure (AB) starts at byte[4] as opposed to byte[2] since a word maps to an unsigned int16. Then the first integer in the AB struct starts at byte[8] as opposed to byte[6]. So, is there a more efficient way to retrieve the data from the pipe and put it into the structure, or is parsing by bytes the correct way? If parsing the bytes is how it should be done, then what am I missing when trying to map where the data should be?
Thanks

after a suggestion from LU RD, i was able to put this solution together:
definition of VC 6 structs:
typedef struct
{
WORD WtYPE;
AB objEmbededStruct1;
BB objEmbededStruct2;
char szString[13];
union
{
char szString1[25];
char szSTring2[45];
char szString3[134];
}
BOOL bExist;
} myStruct1;
typedef struct
{
char szThisString1[2];
int iFlag1;
char szThisString2[11];
}AB;
typedef struct
{
HANDLE hEvents[2];
DWORD dw;
int ithisFlag;
}BB;
I needed to the using statement to the c# code:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
The struct definition in c# looks like this:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
public struct RM_CLIENT_DATA
{
public UInt16 wtype;
AB objEmbededStruct1;
BB objEmbededStruct2;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 13)]
char[] szString;
public Data objMyUnion //this is the structure substituted for the union
public int bExist;
}
//Union struct
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
public struct Data
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = FILE_NAME_LENGTH + 1)]
[FieldOffset(0)]
public char[] szString1
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = DOCS_LEN + 1)]
[FieldOffset(0)]
public char[] szString2;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 134)]
[FieldOffset(0)]
public char[] szString3;
}
[structLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, charset = charSet.Ansi)]
public struct AB
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 2)]
char[] szThisString1;
int IFlag1;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 11)]
char[] szThisString2;
}
[structLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, charset = charSet.Ansi)]
public struct BB
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 2)]
public UInt32[] hEvents;
public UInt32 dw;
public int ithisFlag;
}
the code to pull the stream from the named pipe into the struct looks like this:
const int BUFFER_SIZE=4096;
byte[] typeData = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];
int iMaxData = ioStream.Read(typeData, 0, BUFFER_SIZE);
GCHandle objHandle = new GCHandle();
iMaxData = ioStream.Read(typeData, 0, BUFFER_SIZE); //read the stream
try
{
objHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(typeData, GCHandleType.Pinned);
objData = (RM_CLIENT_DATA)Marshal.PtrToStructure(objHandle.
AddrOfPinnedObject(),typeof(RM_CLIENT_DATA));
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ErrorCode = -6;
ErrorMessage = string.Format("ReadMessageToGenericStruct: Error: {0}
attempting to move data into RM_CLIENT_DATA struct.", ex.Message);
return bResult;
}
finally
{
objHandle.Free();
}
to use the char[]'s in the structure, I used:
string myWorkString = new string( objData.szString);
to return the data to the pipe -- I reversed the process:
//get the size of the filled structure
int iStructSize = Marshal.SizeOf(objData);
//allocate the byte array to write the structure into
byte[] outBuffer = new byte[ iStructSize];
//create the GCHandle variable
GCHanlde objHandle = new GCHandle();
try{
//allocate a handle for the byte array
objHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(outBuffer, GCHandleType.Pinned);
//move your data to the byte array
Marshal.StructureToPtr( objData, objHandle.AddrOfPinnedObject(), false);
}
catch (Execeptiion ex)
{
//write error message here
}
finally
{
//free the handle
objHandle.Free();
}
//write the byte array to the stream
try
{
ioStream.Write(outBuffer, 0, iStructSize);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//write error message here
}
ioStream.Flush();
ioStream.Close();
the following link was a big help, thanks to that author as well!
Mastering c# structs