How to use *.lib file in C# application?

c# .net wpf dll .lib
Rella picture Rella · May 17, 2010 · Viewed 11.4k times · Source

So I have some .lib file (generated like this one) How to use it from my C# WPF application?

Answer

Dirk Vollmar picture Dirk Vollmar · May 17, 2010

When you want to use native libraries from C# you won't need a .lib file. The way this is handled in .NET is by using Platform Invoke (P/Invoke). I suggest you follow the tutorial on MSDN, it will get you started:

Platform Invoke Tutorial

If you want to generate a wrapper you might want to have a look at the P/Invoke Interop Assistant on CodePlex. Please note that this tool works on the original C/C++ code. Using a .dll file to create a wrapper is not feasible because native DLLs don't store the signature of the exported functions (as described in this thread) and a lib file will store the signature in a compiler specific way.

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