How to use dll files in visual studio 2010

Thanks Brian, your simple description helps clarify this for me in a way that other discussions didn't. For this to work, I also need to have their. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. This walkthrough creates two Visual Studio solutions; one that builds the DLL, and one that builds the client app.

The DLL uses the C calling convention. It can be called from apps written in other programming languages, as long as the platform, calling conventions, and linking conventions match.

The client app uses implicit linking , where Windows links the app to the DLL at load-time. This linking lets the app call the DLL-supplied functions just like the functions in a statically linked library. This walkthrough doesn't cover some common situations. It doesn't show how to create a resource-only DLL , or how to use explicit linking to load DLLs at run-time rather than at load-time.

There are two main reasons for this: First, many other languages support imports of C-style functions. Second, it avoids some common pitfalls related to exported classes and member functions. It's easy to make hard-to-diagnose errors when exporting classes, since everything referred to within a class declaration has to have an instantiation that's also exported. This restriction applies to DLLs, but not static libraries. If your classes are plain-old-data style, you shouldn't run into this issue.

For more information about implicit linking and explicit linking, see Determine which linking method to use. For information about how to create DLLs for use with. A copy of Visual Studio.

Don't worry if you didn't install this workload when you installed Visual Studio. You can run the installer again and install it now. If you've used Windows desktop apps before, you can probably keep up. Don't worry, we don't do anything too complicated. This walkthrough assumes you're using Visual Studio version Some earlier versions of Visual Studio had defects in the code templates, or used different user interface dialogs. In this set of tasks, you create a project for your DLL, add code, and build it.

The instructions vary slightly depending on which version of Visual Studio you're using. Make sure you have the correct version selected in the control in the upper left of this page. In the Configure your new project page, enter MathLibrary in the Project name box to specify a name for the project. Leave the default Location and Solution name values. Set Solution to Create new solution. Uncheck Place solution and project in the same directory if it's checked.

When the solution is created, you can see the generated project and source files in the Solution Explorer window in Visual Studio. Enter MathLibrary in the Name box to specify a name for the project. Check Create directory for solution if it's unchecked. Enter MathLibrary in the Name edit box to specify a name for the project. Choose the Next button. When the wizard completes the solution, you can see the generated project and source files in the Solution Explorer window in Visual Studio.

Right now, this DLL doesn't do very much. Next, you'll create a header file to declare the functions your DLL exports, and then add the function definitions to the DLL to make it more useful.

In the center pane, select Header File. Specify MathLibrary. Choose the Add button to generate a blank header file, which is displayed in a new editor window. This header file declares some functions to produce a generalized Fibonacci sequence, given two initial values. Notice the preprocessor statements at the top of the file. To sort by any window column, select the header at the top of the column. The Symbol Status column in the Modules window shows which modules have debugging symbols loaded.

For more information about loading and using symbols, see Specify symbol. If the symbols don't load, select Symbol Settings to open the Options dialog, and specify or change symbol loading locations. You can download symbols from the public Microsoft Symbol Servers or other servers, or load symbols from a folder on your computer. This helps us to reuse same code and efficient memory usage.

By creating dll we can modularized a program into separate components. The steps that create an ASP. A confirmation message will be displayed. Click Yes. Step 3 Double click the Calculator. Sample C code is given bellow:. Step 4 Build the application from the Build menu.