How to Marshal wchar**

I have a .Net Com Server being called by an unmanaged c++ program.  They both 
implement a common interface which passes a string by means of a double 
pointer (c++  interface: [in, out] wchar_t**). 

In the .Net Com server I am supposed to free the memory and allocate new 
memory for this string since I have to read the string it points to, and the 
point it to a new string to pass data back out.

I have used "ref string" which did not work since it was not allocating new 
memory space for the strings sent back out.

I tried "ref StringBuilder" but that did not work because of a current bug 
in the .Net framework, more than 16 characters being sent in will cause an 
error to occur, see the following article:

Article:
 http://www.**--****.com/ ;en-us;317577

I used the workaround in this artice which says to use a pointer for this 
("ref IntPtr") and I have tried this but i cannot get it to work.  I cannot 
read the incoming string or set the string.  I just get garbled data or cause 
memory errors to occur.

Any help would be appreciated!
-- 
-----------------
Eric Carlson

Eric,


Got some code to show? This should work.




Mattias

-- 
Mattias Sjren [MVP]  mattias @ mvps.org
 http://www.**--****.com/ |  http://www.**--****.com/ 
Please reply only to the newsgroup.

When using Marshal.PtrToStringUni to try and get a string from the incoming 
pointer, the string just contains garble.  And when i try and write to the 
pointer using Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemUni, the data is not correctly 
written, since the c++ client has some kind of error (can't see the error 
though).


public interface MyInterface
{
[PreserveSig]
int Validate([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string PathName, ref IntPtr 
Answers);

//The c++ interface definition:
//HRESULT Validate([in, string] wchar_t* PathName,[in, out, unique, string] 
wchar_t** Answers);
}


public class ComServer : MyInterface
{
public ComServer()
{
}

public int Validate(string Pathname, ref IntPtr Answers)
{

string temp;

temp = Marshal.PtrToStringUni(Answers);

ValidatorForm VF = new ValidatorForm();

VF.PromptData.Text = CK_and_Dest_Pathname + "\n\r\n\r\n\r" + temp;

//Get some text to send back through 'Answers'
VF.ShowDialog();
			
Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(Answers);

//Get text to send back
string str = VF.PromptAnswer;

Answers = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemUni(str);

}