CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++dllvisual-studio-2012
Ashley Davies
Ashley Davies

Reputation: 1893

How do I include my C++ DLL in a separate project?

This question might seem obvious but I am having a lot of trouble with this, and I have ended up having to post here after a lot of searching.

I currently have two windows of Visual Studio open. One is a Win32 Console->DLL project which exports a class, and in the output directory I have:

I have dropped the DLL file into the my other project's output directory, as I do with all DLLs, and that works fine usually. Then, I added the directory into the Linker's library directories.

But unlike most libraries I use, I think I have done something wrong or I misunderstand how this works, I have no .h[pp] files, and so I have no idea how I am supposed to include the functions into my code. I'd rather not have Windows-only hacks (I want to confine that to the DLL project only, so that it can be ported easily).

Can anyone enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4684

Answers (3)

Stéphane
Stéphane

Reputation: 6905

A .dll is a shared library, as opposed to a static library (.lib on Windows).

Static library must always be linked when you compile your project, and you can easily call their functions using header (.h/.hpp) files, whereas you have two options for the shared library:

  • static linking (at compile-time, but the way to do it is different than for a static library)
  • dynamic linking (at run-time)

I would advise you to read this in-depth article: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/85391/Microsoft-Visual-C-Static-and-Dynamic-Libraries

See also the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic-link_library

Upvotes: 0

monex0
monex0

Reputation: 238

There is nothing 'hacky' or 'windows' specific about having .h files available to the other projects. Your .lib file will provide the necessary information to complete the build. See: How do I use a third party dll in Visual Studio C++?

Upvotes: 1

Ilia Kleiman
Ilia Kleiman

Reputation: 21

Did you add the .lib file corresponding to the .dll into the other project's directory?

It is the .lib file that is consumed by the linker, not the DLL (which is consumed by the loader at run-time).

Upvotes: 0

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