How to create and initialize SAFEARRAY of doubles in C++ to pass to C#

Question

My C# method needs to be invoked from C++

Originally my C# method takes a parameter of type double[], but when calling from C++ it becomes a SAFEARRAY

In C++

Answer 1

Continuing on @Liton's answer, I want to stress his last sentence, i.e. ATL's CComSafeArray. It really can save you a lot of typing. CComSafeArray has C++ constructors, destructors, operator overloads including one for [ ] that gives you an read / write reference to any element in the SAFEARRAY. In short, you can really focus on your business logic and needn't worry about the SAFEARRAY plumbing:

#include <atlbase.h>
#include <atlsafe.h>
// ...

    CComSafeArray<double> arr(10);
    arr[0] = 2.0;
    arr[1] = 3.0;
    arr[2] = 5.0;
    // ...

At the very least, even if you're not going to use CComSafeArray it's worthwhile to deconstruct its source code in <atlsafe.h> giving you better insight on the what, when, why and how on SAFEARRAY functions.

Answer 2

Following is the code to create a safearray in C++.

#include<oaidl.h>

void CreateSafeArray(SAFEARRAY** saData)        
{
    double data[10]; // some sample data to write into the created safearray
    SAFEARRAYBOUND  Bound;
    Bound.lLbound   = 0;
    Bound.cElements = 10;

    *saData = SafeArrayCreate(VT_R8, 1, &Bound);

    double HUGEP *pdFreq;
    HRESULT hr = SafeArrayAccessData(*saData, (void HUGEP* FAR*)&pdFreq);
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
            // copy sample values from data[] to this safearray
        for (DWORD i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            *pdFreq++ = data[i];
        }
        SafeArrayUnaccessData(*saData);
    }
}

Free the pointer when you are finished like the following code-

  SAFEARRAY* saData;
  CreateSafeArray(&saData); // Create the safe array
  // use the safearray
  ...
  ...

  // Call the SafeArrayDestroy to destroy the safearray 
  SafeArrayDestroy(saData);
  saData = NULL; // set the pointer to NULL

If you use ATL for C++, then better use CComSafeArray declared in "atlsafe.h". This is wrapper for SAFEARRAY. link text

Answer 3

Passing SAFEARRAYs is not recommended. It is recommended to place the SAFEARRAY into a VARIANT. Further, the SAFEARRAY should hold VARIANT data. This gives the best of all worlds and makes passing VARIANT SAFEARRAY of VARIANTs more useful to other languages. E.g. C++ to VB / C# (Note it is up to the caller to free/destroy the SAFEARRAY)

Building on the previous code

// A VARIANT holding a SAFEARRAY of VARIANTs
VARIANT vRet;

SAFEARRAYBOUND Bound;
Bound.lLbound = 0;
Bound.cElements = 10;

SAFEARRAY * psaData = SafeArrayCreate(VT_VARIANT, 1, &Bound);

VARIANT HUGEP * pData = NULL;
HRESULT hr = SafeArrayAccessData(psaData, (void HUGEP * FAR *)&pData);
if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
    for (short i = 0; i < 10; ++i,++pData)
    {
        ::VariantInit(pData);
        pData->vt = VT_I2;
        pData->iVal = i;
    }

    SafeArrayUnaccessData(psaData);
}

vRet.vt = VT_ARRAY | VT_VARIANT;
vRet.parray = psaData;