Declaring and calling a DLL function

[chinkybubbles]

What are the commands to declare and call a DLL function? Something like these VB commands:

Private Declare Function x Lib "x.dll" () As String

Private Sub
Dim s as String
s = x()
End

Thanks.

 

[Cagliostro]

__declspec(dllexport) yourfunctiondeclaration;
for dll side

__declspec(dllimport) yourfunctiondeclaration;
for caller side


Ion Filipski

 

[chinkybubbles]

Ion, I saw that in MSDN but can't figure out how to specify the DLL name. Thanks!

 

[Cagliostro]

you don't have to specify the dll name. Wehn you compile the dll is generated a .lib file. Link your .exe with that .lib file. The lib contains all information needed to load the dll.

Ion Filipski

 

[teriviret]

If you don't have the .lib file, you can still link with the DLL by using the LoadLibrary() and GetProcAddress() functions. In fact, I prefer this method because then the application does not absolutely require the DLL. It can still load and provide partial functionality. On the other hand, if you use the .lib file, and you the DLL isn't found at runtime, the application will not even load at all.