I have the following c# and c++ pinvoke marshalling of 2d multidimensional array of type double matter I'm trying to solve.

I've reviewed the following hit to get what I have currently P/Invoke with arrays of double - marshalling data between C# and C++ .

I've reviewed Marshalling C# Jagged Array to C++ which has a very good scenario match but it's not clear how to go from answer to all aspects of implementation.

My issue, I think if i'm on right path so far, is how I unwind the c++ *outputArray = new double[*outputArrayRows, *outputArrayCols]; that is successfully passed back from DllImport enabled call to the c# IntPtr outputArrayPtr variable into the var outputArray = new double[outputArrayRows, outputArrayCols]; variable I need in order to proceed.

Question = Any insights on if the for loop is the right next step and what extraction syntax I use inside of it?

c++ side of things

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void SomeFunction(double** inputArray, int inputArrayRows, int inputArrayCols,

    double** outputArray, int* outputArrayRows, int* outputArrayCols)

{

    // just initialize the output results for testing purposes no value assignment as of yet

    *outputArrayRows = 10;

    *outputArrayCols = 2;

    *outputArray = new double[*outputArrayRows, *outputArrayCols];

    return;

}



extern "C" __declspec(dllexport)DllExport void FreeArray(double** allocatedArrayPtr)

{

    delete allocatedArrayPtr;

}

c# side of things

[DllImport(dllName /*, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl */)]

static extern void SomeFunction(double[,] inputArray, int inputArrayRows, int inputArrayCols, 

    out IntPtr outputArray, out int outputArrayRows, out int outputArrayCols);

[DllImport(dllName /*, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl */)]

static extern void FreeArray(IntPtr allocatedArrayPtr);



[TestMethod]

public void DllImport_SomeFunction_ShouldNotThrowException()

{

    var inputArray = new double[,] { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 }, { 7, 8, 9 } };



    IntPtr outputArrayPtr; int outputArrayRows, outputArrayCols;

    DllImportUnitTests.SomeFunction(inputArray, inputArray.GetLength(0), inputArray.GetLength(1), 

        out outputArrayPtr, out outputArrayRows, out outputArrayCols);

    var outputArray = new double[outputArrayRows, outputArrayCols];

    IntPtr outputArrayPtrArray = new IntPtr[outputArrayRows];

    //Marshal.Copy(outputArrayPtr, outputArray, 0, outputArrayRows); // overload for double but not for double[,]

    Marshal.Copy(outputArrayPtr, outputArrayPtrArray, 0, outputArrayRows);

    FreeArray(outputArrayPtr);

    for (var i = 0; i < outputArrayPtrArray.Length; i++)

    {

        Marshal.Copy(outputArrayPtrArray[i], outputArray[i ???], 0, outputArrayCols);

    }



    Assert.IsNotNull(outputArray);

}

update containing answer [ / what worked for me ]

Based on comments I updated title to denote this issue has to do with trying to pass and receive a 2d [ / multi-dimensional ] array not a jagged array. That said what became apparent in my tests is that vs17 c++ windows desktop dll project environment only does jagged arrays [ e.g. c++ DllExport double** SomeFunction(double** inputArray, . . . and double** returnArray = new double*[numberOfRows] and c# double dogLegValues = new double[numberOfRows][/* numberOfCols not specified */]; ]. Below i'm adding the c# pinvoke DllImport and c++ function signatures that I was able to get things working with and some of the interesting marshalling code for prepping the 2d array for passing as jagged array and for processing the returned jagged array eventually converting it to 2d array that caller was expecting if that helps others.

c# DllImport statement and comments capturing findings

[DllImport(dllName /*, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl */)]

//static extern /* double */ IntPtr SomeFunction(double inputArray, int inputArrayRows, out int outputArrayRows); // pinvoke can marshal double 1d array input but not output

static extern /* double[,] */ IntPtr SomeFunction(/* double[,] */ IntPtr inputArray, int inputArrayRows, out int outputArrayRows); // pinvoke cannot marshal double[,] 2d array input or output

c++ function signature

#define DllExport extern "C" __declspec(dllexport)

//DllExport double* SomeFunction(double* inputArray, int inputArrayRows, int* outputArrayRows) // using flattened 2d array input and output

DllExport double** SomeFunction(double** inputArray, int inputArrayRows, int* outputArraysRows) // using 2d converted to jagged array [ of arrays ] input and output

c# marshaling code for 2d array flattened into 1d array

int outputArrayRows; const int outputArrayCols = 2;

double inputArrayFlattened = new double[inputArray.Length];

//var index = 0; foreach (var value in inputArray) { inputArrayFlattened[index] = value; index++; } // more concise flattening but adds a stack frame variable 

for (var i = 0; i < inputArray.GetLength(0); i++) { for (var j = 0; j < inputArray.GetLength(1); j++) inputArrayFlattened[i * inputArray.GetLength(1) + j] = (double)inputArray.GetValue(i, j); }

IntPtr outputArrayPtr = MyUnitTests.SomeFunction(inputArrayFlattened, inputArray.Length, out dogLegValuesRows);

double outputArray = new double[outputArrayCols]; Marshal.Copy(outputArrayPtr, outputArray, 0, outputArrayCols);

c# marshaling code for 2d array

IntPtr inputArrayPtr = new IntPtr[inputArray.GetLength(0)];

var inputArrayJagged = inputArray.ToJaggedArray();

for (var i = 0; i < inputArrayJagged.Length; i++)

{

    IntPtr inputArrayJaggedRowPtr = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(sizeof(double) * inputArrayJagged[i].Length);

    Marshal.Copy(inputArrayJagged[i], 0, inputArrayJaggedRowPtr, inputArrayJagged[i].Length);

    inputArrayPtr[i] = inputArrayJaggedRowPtr;

}

IntPtr outputArrayJaggedPtr = MyUnitTests.SomeFunction(inputArrayPtr, inputArray.GetLength(0), out outputArrayRows);

IntPtr outputArrayJaggedPtrArray = new IntPtr[outputArrayRows];

Marshal.Copy(outputArrayJaggedPtr, outputArrayJaggedPtrArray, 0, outputArrayRows);

//FreeArray(outputArrayJaggedPtr); // doesn't appear we need this given passing result back as return value and no issue when returning 1 row but crashes when returning 2 rows



double outputArray = new double[outputArrayRows][/* outputArrayCols not specified */];

for (var i = 0; i < outputArrayJaggedPtrArray.Length; i++)

{

    outputArray[i] = new double[outputArrayCols]; // can't do this with a double[,] 2d array or can you ???

    double outputArrayJaggedRow = new double[outputArrayCols]; 

    Marshal.Copy(outputArrayJaggedPtrArray[i], outputArrayJaggedRow, 0, outputArrayCols);

    outputArray[i] = outputArrayJaggedRow;

}



var results = outputArray.ToTwoDimensionalArray();

c++ jagged array initialization and assignment examples

// hard coded test return values used to get pinvoke marshalling worked out using flattened 2d array input and output

double* returnArray = new double[2]; // or new double[outputDataCols] 

returnArray[0] = 1234.56; returnArray[1] = 98.76; dogLegValuesRows = 1;



// hard coded test return values used to get pinvoke marshalling worked out using 2d converted to jagged array [ of arrays ] input and output

double** returnArray = new double*[2]; // or new double*[*outputDataRows]

returnArray[0] = new double[2]; // or new double[*outputDataCols]

returnArray[0][0] = 1234.56; returnArray[0][1] = 98.76; //*outputDataRows = 1;

returnArray[1] = new double[2]; // or new double[*outputDataCols]

returnArray[1][0] = 7890.12; returnArray[1][1] = 34.56; *outputDataRows = 2;

This code:

*values = new double[*valuesOuterLen, *valuesInnerLen];

does not do what you think it does. (I shortened the variable names because they just complicate things.)

C++ inherits from C a lack of multi-dimensional arrays. What it does have is arrays of arrays, or arrays of pointers to arrays. In both cases you index these as array[firstIndex][secondIndex]. You can't new an array of pointers like that, you have to write something like:

double*** values;  // Triple pointer!  Ow!!  *values is a pointer to

                   // (an array of) pointers to (arrays of) doubles.

*values = new double*[*valuesOuterLen];

for (size_t i=0; i<valuesOuterLen; i++) {

    (*values)[i] = new double[*valuesInnerLen];

}

What you have actually invoked is the C++ comma operator, which evaluates and discards the first operand, and then evaluates the second operand. Crank your compiler warnings up; a good compiler will warn that the first operand has no side-effects.