Marshal a structure with nested structures

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Hello,
I am writing a .net wrapper for a C library. My problem is marshalling of non-blittable types.

The library uses structures with nested structures.
The C function requires a pointer as a parameter.

VB

<DllImport(log.dll, CharSet:=CharSet.Ansi, EntryPoint:="Write", CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)>
    Private Shared Function Write(fooPtr As IntPtr) As Int32
    End Function

<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack:=1)>
Public Structure Foo
    Public AdditionalInformations As AdditionalInformations'Nested Structure
   
    Public Tick As Integer
    <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst:=2)> Public Trick As Integer()
    Public Trick As Integer
    Public Truck As Integer

    <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)>
    Public Description As String ' name in MBCS
    Public Data As Byte() ' data as array with variable length
End Structure

<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack:=1)>
   public Structure AdditionalInformations
   public Informations as Informations  'Nested Structure
   public Bar as integer
End Structure


<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack:=1)>
public Structure Informations 
   public Size as Integer
   public Name as Integer
End Structure

If I try to pin the Memory of this Structure using GCHandle.Alloc(Foo, GCHandleType.Pinned) I got an Exception Object doesn't contains primitive data types.

Is it possible to use the MarshalAs-Attributes to tell the Compiler how this Structures should be interpreted ?

What I have tried:

Tried to use MarshalAs Attributes and Marshal.StructureToIntptr (allocate size of structure and call Marshal.StructureToPtr).

Dim pnt As IntPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(Foo))
     Marshal.StructureToPtr(Foo, pnt, False)

Posted 5-Jun-23 23:05pm

Christian S. (Chris)

Updated 12-Jun-23 6:42am

v3

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Maciej Los 12-Jun-23 12:34pm

Does it helps: Marshalling Classes, Structures, and Unions - .NET Framework | Microsoft Learn[^]

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Maciej Los · Answer 1 · 2023-06-12T06:42:00

Well, you need to create an instance of class, as is described here: Marshalling Classes, Structures, and Unions - .NET Framework | Microsoft Learn[^]

C#

MyPerson personName;
        personName.first = "Mark";
        personName.last = "Lee";

        IntPtr buffer = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(Marshal.SizeOf(personName));
        Marshal.StructureToPtr(personName, buffer, false);

So, instead of:

VB.NET

Dim pnt As IntPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(Foo))
     Marshal.StructureToPtr(Foo, pnt, False)

You need something like that:

Dim f as Foo = ...
Dim pnt As IntPtr = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(Marshal.SizeOf(f))
     Marshal.StructureToPtr(f, pnt, False)

Do you see the difference?