Cannot use c++ dll in vb.net project - c++

Question

I want to call a c++ function from my vb.net project and i'm trying to create a dll to do so.I've never tried it before so according to the guides i read i created a dll.dll(using C++ in Visual Studio) with a dll.def file and i tried linking it to my VB project. Athough i can build it without any error it crushes and i get
'System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalDirectiveException'
Additional information: PInvoke restriction: cannot return variants.
My code is this:
dll.h
#define WDL_API __declspec(dllexport)
extern "C" WDL_API int __stdcall wdl(void);
dll.cpp
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "dll.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
char var[] = {"a"};
extern "C" WDL_API int __stdcall wdl(void)
{
int i, len1 = sizeof(var);
char sName[100], sAns[10];
FILE *ptr;
errno_t errorCode = fopen_s(&ptr, ".\\file", "wb");
for (i = 0; i<len1 - 1; i++)
fprintf(ptr, "%c", var[i]);
fclose(ptr);
return 0;
}
dll.def
LIBRARY dll
EXPORTS
wdl #1
vbproject
Module Module1
Public Declare Auto Function wdl _
Lib "dll.dll" Alias "wdl" ()
Sub Main()
Console.WriteLine("inside vb.net")
wdl()
End Sub
End Module
The code seems to make sense but i can't find out if i am missing something or there are mistakes of some kind.Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

You did not specify the return type and so VB assumes that it is a variant. You don't want that. It is a C int, or VB Integer. Code it like this:
Public Declare Auto Function wdl Lib "dll.dll" Alias "wdl" () As Integer
That said, pinvoke is to be preferred over Declare these days so I would write it like this:
<DllImport("dll.dll")> _
Public Shared Function wdl() As Integer
End Function