How to call C++ function from C?
I would do it in the following way:
(If working with MSVC, ignore the GCC compilation commands)
Suppose that I have a C++ class named AAA, defined in files aaa.h, aaa.cpp, and that the class AAA has a method named sayHi(const char *name), that I want to enable for C code.
The C++ code of class AAA - Pure C++, I don't modify it:
aaa.h
#ifndef AAA_H
#define AAA_H
class AAA {
public:
AAA();
void sayHi(const char *name);
};
#endif
aaa.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include "aaa.h"
AAA::AAA() {
}
void AAA::sayHi(const char *name) {
std::cout << "Hi " << name << std::endl;
}
Compiling this class as regularly done for C++. This code "does not know" that it is going to be used by C code. Using the command:
g++ -fpic -shared aaa.cpp -o libaaa.so
Now, also in C++, creating a C connector:
Defining it in files aaa_c_connector.h, aaa_c_connector.cpp. This connector is going to define a C function, named AAA_sayHi(cosnt char *name), that will use an instance of AAA and will call its method:
aaa_c_connector.h
#ifndef AAA_C_CONNECTOR_H
#define AAA_C_CONNECTOR_H
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
void AAA_sayHi(const char *name);
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif
aaa_c_connector.cpp
#include <cstdlib>
#include "aaa_c_connector.h"
#include "aaa.h"
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
// Inside this "extern C" block, I can implement functions in C++, which will externally
// appear as C functions (which means that the function IDs will be their names, unlike
// the regular C++ behavior, which allows defining multiple functions with the same name
// (overloading) and hence uses function signature hashing to enforce unique IDs),
static AAA *AAA_instance = NULL;
void lazyAAA() {
if (AAA_instance == NULL) {
AAA_instance = new AAA();
}
}
void AAA_sayHi(const char *name) {
lazyAAA();
AAA_instance->sayHi(name);
}
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
Compiling it, again, using a regular C++ compilation command:
g++ -fpic -shared aaa_c_connector.cpp -L. -laaa -o libaaa_c_connector.so
Now I have a shared library (libaaa_c_connector.so), that implements the C function AAA_sayHi(const char *name). I can now create a C main file and compile it all together:
main.c
#include "aaa_c_connector.h"
int main() {
AAA_sayHi("David");
AAA_sayHi("James");
return 0;
}
Compiling it using a C compilation command:
gcc main.c -L. -laaa_c_connector -o c_aaa
I will need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to contain $PWD, and if I run the executable ./c_aaa, I will get the output I expect:
Hi David
Hi James
EDIT:
On some linux distributions, -laaa
and -lstdc++
may also be required for the last compilation command. Thanks to @AlaaM. for the attention
You need to create a C API for exposing the functionality of your C++ code. Basically, you will need to write C++ code that is declared extern "C" and that has a pure C API (not using classes, for example) that wraps the C++ library. Then you use the pure C wrapper library that you've created.
Your C API can optionally follow an object-oriented style, even though C is not object-oriented. Ex:
// *.h file
// ...
#ifdef __cplusplus
#define EXTERNC extern "C"
#else
#define EXTERNC
#endif
typedef void* mylibrary_mytype_t;
EXTERNC mylibrary_mytype_t mylibrary_mytype_init();
EXTERNC void mylibrary_mytype_destroy(mylibrary_mytype_t mytype);
EXTERNC void mylibrary_mytype_doit(mylibrary_mytype_t self, int param);
#undef EXTERNC
// ...
// *.cpp file
mylibrary_mytype_t mylibrary_mytype_init() {
return new MyType;
}
void mylibrary_mytype_destroy(mylibrary_mytype_t untyped_ptr) {
MyType* typed_ptr = static_cast<MyType*>(untyped_ptr);
delete typed_ptr;
}
void mylibrary_mytype_doit(mylibrary_mytype_t untyped_self, int param) {
MyType* typed_self = static_cast<MyType*>(untyped_self);
typed_self->doIt(param);
}