Yes. You can. Actually, not std::string
, std::wstring
, any standard C++ class or your own classes can be marshaled or instantiated and called from C#/.NET. You will need to write a wrapper class for each of the C++ class before you can marshal them in .NET.
The basic idea of instantiating a C++ object from .NET world is to allocate exact size of the C++ object from .NET, then call the constructor which is exported from the C++ DLL to initialize the object, then you will be able to call any of the functions to access that C++ object, if any of the method involves other C++ classes, you will need to wrap them in a C# class as well, for methods with primitive types, you can simply P/Invoke them. If you have only a few methods to call, it would be simple, manual coding won't take long. When you are done with the C++ object, you call the destructor method of the C++ object, which is a export function as well. if it does not have one, then you just need to free your memory from .NET.
Here is an example.
public class SampleClass : IDisposable
{
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="ConstructorOfYourClass", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void SampleClassConstructor(IntPtr thisObject);
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="DoSomething", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void DoSomething(IntPtr thisObject);
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="DoSomethingElse", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void DoSomething(IntPtr thisObject, int x);
IntPtr ptr;
public SampleClass(int sizeOfYourCppClass)
{
this.ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(sizeOfYourCppClass);
SampleClassConstructor(this.ptr);
}
public void DoSomething()
{
DoSomething(this.ptr);
}
public void DoSomethingElse(int x)
{
DoSomethingElse(this.ptr, x);
}
public void Dispose()
{
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(this.ptr);
}
}
For the detail, please see the below link,
C#/.NET PInvoke Interop SDK
(I am the author of the SDK tool)
Once you have the C# wrapper class for your C++ class ready, it is easy to implement ICustomMarshaler
so that you can marshal the C++ object from .NET.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.interopservices.icustommarshaler.aspx