I know this.
Calling C function from C++:
If my application was in C++ and I had to call functions from a library written in C. Then I would have used
//main.cpp
extern "C" void C_library_function(int x, int y);//prototype
C_library_function(2,4);// directly using it.
This wouldn't mangle the name C_library_function
and linker would find the same name in its input *.lib files and problem is solved.
Calling C++ function from C???
But here I'm extending a large application which is written in C and I need to use a library which is written in C++. Name mangling of C++ is causing trouble here. Linker is complaining about the unresolved symbols. Well I cannot use C++ compiler over my C project because thats breaking lot of other stuff. What is the way out?
By the way I'm using MSVC
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);
}