CallingConvention Enumeration
Specifies the calling convention required to call methods implemented in unmanaged code.
[Visual Basic] <Serializable> Public Enum CallingConvention [C#] [Serializable] public enum CallingConvention [C++] [Serializable] __value public enum CallingConvention [JScript] public Serializable enum CallingConvention
Remarks
Always use the CallingConvention enumeration rather than the CALLCONV enumeration to specify a calling convention in managed code. The latter exists only for the sake of COM definitions. The CallingConvention enumeration is used by DllImportAttribute and several classes in System.Reflection.Emit to dynamically emit platform invoke signatures.
Members
| Member name | Description |
|---|---|
| Cdecl | The caller cleans the stack. This enables calling functions with varargs, which makes it appropriate to use for methods that accept a variable number of parameters, such as Printf. |
| FastCall | This calling convention is not supported. |
| StdCall | The callee cleans the stack. This is the default convention for calling unmanaged functions with platform invoke. |
| ThisCall | The first parameter is the this pointer and is stored in register ECX. Other parameters are pushed on the stack. This calling convention is used to call methods on classes exported from an unmanaged DLL. |
| Winapi Supported by the .NET Compact Framework. | This member is not actually a calling convention, but instead uses the default platform calling convention. For example, on Windows the default is StdCall and on Windows CE .NET it is Cdecl. |
Example
[Visual Basic, C#, C++] The following example demonstrates how to apply the Cdecl calling convention, which you must use because the stack is cleaned up by the caller.
[Visual Basic] Imports System Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices Public Class LibWrap ' Visual Basic does not support varargs, so all arguments must be ' explicitly defined. CallingConvention.Cdecl must be used since the stack ' is cleaned up by the caller. ' int printf( const char *format [, argument]... ) <DllImport("msvcrt.dll", CallingConvention := CallingConvention.Cdecl)> _ Overloads Shared Function printf ( _ format As String, i As Integer, d As Double) As Integer End Function <DllImport("msvcrt.dll", CallingConvention := CallingConvention.Cdecl)> _ Overloads Shared Function printf ( _ format As String, i As Integer, s As String) As Integer End Function End Class 'LibWrap Public Class App Public Shared Sub Main() LibWrap.printf(ControlChars.CrLf + "Print params: %i %f", 99, _ 99.99) LibWrap.printf(ControlChars.CrLf + "Print params: %i %s", 99, _ "abcd") End Sub 'Main End Class 'App [C#] using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; public class LibWrap { // C# doesn't support varargs so all arguments must be explicitly defined. // CallingConvention.Cdecl must be used since the stack is // cleaned up by the caller. // int printf( const char *format [, argument]... ) [DllImport("msvcrt.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)] public static extern int printf(String format, int i, double d); [DllImport("msvcrt.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)] public static extern int printf(String format, int i, String s); } public class App { public static void Main() { LibWrap.printf("\nPrint params: %i %f", 99, 99.99); LibWrap.printf("\nPrint params: %i %s", 99, "abcd"); } } [C++] #using <mscorlib.dll> using namespace System; using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices; public __gc class LibWrap { // C# doesn't support varargs so all arguments must be explicitly defined. // CallingConvention.Cdecl must be used since the stack is // cleaned up by the caller. // int printf( const char *format [, argument]... ) public: [DllImport(S"msvcrt.dll", CharSet=CharSet::Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention::Cdecl)] static int printf(String* format, int i, double d); [DllImport(S"msvcrt.dll", CharSet=CharSet::Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention::Cdecl)] static int printf(String* format, int i, String* s); }; int main() { LibWrap::printf(S"\nPrint params: %i %f", 99, 99.99); LibWrap::printf(S"\nPrint params: %i %s", 99, S"abcd"); }
[JScript] No example is available for JScript. To view a Visual Basic, C#, or C++ example, click the Language Filter button
in the upper-left corner of the page.
Requirements
Namespace: System.Runtime.InteropServices
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003 family, .NET Compact Framework
Assembly: Mscorlib (in Mscorlib.dll)
See Also
System.Runtime.InteropServices Namespace | DllImportAttribute | System.Reflection.Emit