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Using WGrammar Windows SDK with C#

Product: WGrammar Grammar Checker Engine Windows SDK

The following declarations may help customers who need to integrate WGrammar Grammara Checker Engine into a C# application.

Function declarations

WGrammar API functions documented in WGrammar Reference Guide are shown in C/C++ syntax. The following table shows how to translate C/C++ data types into C# data types:

C/C++ type	Type description	C/C++ example	Equivalent C# type	C# Example
const char *	String, or more accurately, pointer to an array of characters	const char *fileName	[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string	[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string fileName
char *	Output string.	char *description	[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder	[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder description
WS_S16	Signed, 16-bit integer	WS_S16 sid	short	short sid
WS_S32	Signed, 32-bit integer	WS_S32 offset	int	int offset
WS_S32 *	Pointer to a signed, 32-bit integer ("pointer" meaning "pass by reference")	WS_S32 *matchLen	ref int	ref int matchLen

For pointer-type parameters (denoted by "*", as in char *str) the keyword "const" indicates that the parameter is passed by reference but will not be modified by the called function. If "const" is missing, the parameter is either an output parameter (meaning it is modified to by the called function) or an input/output parameter (meaning its value is read by the called function and may be modified by the called function).

By default, C# uses wide (2-byte) character strings, but the WGrammar DLL uses single byte strings. For this reason, the [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] modifier should be applied to string-type parameters (both input and output).

Following is an example function declaration:

[DllImport(@"wgram232.dll")] public static extern int WGrammar_Run(short sid, ref int matchOffset, ref int matchLen, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder description, int descriptionSz, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder replacement, int replacementSz, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder id, int idSz, ref int confidence);

(Note that references to wgram232.dll should be changed to the name of the WGrammar DLL included with your version of the WGrammar Windows SDK.)

For more information on calling DLLs from C#, search MSDN for "Platform Invoke Tutorial."