MATLAB - C# Interfacing

8/11/2019 MATLAB - C# Interfacing

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1.1. Conversion of m (MATLAB source code) le to .NET component in

the form of dll (Dynamic Link Library) le using MATLAB

Following are the steps to convert m-le into dll-le using MATLAB deployment project tool:

First write deploytool in the Command Window of MATLAB and press Enter as shown

below:

Figure 3-2: Opening Deployment Project window

It will open the Deployment Project window. Enter the desired name e.g. I named it as

DotNetProject and select the locaon where you want to save the .NET component. From

the type drop down menu select the .NET Assembly opon as shown in the snapshot below:

Figure 3-3: Deployment Project window and selecon of .NET Assembly


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Aer making desired changes on the Deployment Project window press Enter or click

OK on the window. It will open the .NET Assembly window as shown below:

Figure 3-4: .NET Assembly window


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Now on the .NET Assembly window click on Add class to add a new class and rename it

according to your choice e.g. I named it as DotNetClass. Any number of classes can be added

according to the requirement. The snapshot shown below shows a class DotNetClass by

above menoned procedure:

Figure 3-5: Adding a class in .NET Assembly window


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Now click on Add les below the class you just added and it will open Add Files window

which enables you to select the m-les you want to add to this class. Any number of m-les

can be added depending upon the user requirements. Browse the path for the les you want

to add to this class, select them and click open on the Add Files window. The Add Files

window is shown below:

Figure 3-6: Adding m-le to the project in MATLAB


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It will add the selected les below the class as shown in the following snapshot:

Figure 3-7: Class in .NET Assembly window along with added m-le

To see the les which will be created within the package aer building the project click on

Package tab on the .NET Assembly window. For example following snapshot shows the

les which will be created in my DotNetProject:

Figure 3-8: Preview of les which will be built by MATLAB .NET Builder


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Next step is oponal. It depends upon your choice and requirement. If you like to add MCR

(MATLAB Compiler Runme) in your package then go to Package tab on .NET Assembly

window and click on Add MCR. The snapshot for this is shown below:

Figure 3-9: Adding MCR to project in MATLAB

The alternate way procedure for adding MCR is going to acon buon on the .NET

Assembly window and click on Add MCR. The snapshot for this step is shown below:

Figure 3-10: Alternave way of adding MCR to a project in MATLAB


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It will open prompt you to select the way you want to add the MCR in your package. Its up to

you which way you prefer then select that opon and click OK on the dialog. The following

snapshot shows the dialog which appears:

Figure 3-11: Dierent opons for adding MCR in a project in MATLAB


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Aer nishing all the above steps the project is ready to be built to convert m-le into .NET

assembly which can be used in .NET soluons. In order to build the project click on build

buon on the .NET Assembly window as shown below:

Figure 3-12: Building project in MATLAB for m-le to dll-le conversion


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The alternave way of building the project is to go to acon buon on the .NET Assembly

window and click on build buon there. The snapshot for this is shown below:

Figure 3-13: Alternave way of building project in MATLAB


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When the build buon is clicked then start building and takes someme depending upon

the computer in use. The following window appears when the build buon is clicked:

Figure 3-14: Window showing project building in MATLAB in progress


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The following window appears on successful building of project:

Figure 3-15: Successful built of project

In case of any error in building, the project building fails and it indicates the problem which if

needs to be corrected and aer correcon re-building of project succeeds.


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Now the les which are built by this process are ready to be used within a .NET soluon can

be seen in the following snapshot:

Figure 3-16: Files created by project building in MATLAB

1.2. Adding MATLAB generated dll into C# program as a reference and

using its funcon as a method in C#

Following are the steps to use MATLAB generated dll-le in a C# program:

First of all open a new project in Visual Studio C#. I am using Visual C# 2010 express for this

purpose. There are many good help pages available for staring .NET programming using Visual

Studio on the. So, I will not much concentrate on .NET programming stu rather then I will

put my concentraon on using MATLAB built dll-les in your C# project and will demonstrate

with the help of snapshots that how to add references, dene namespace, creang object of

class built by MATLAB and using method of this class in C# program. For this purpose I will use

the dll which I just built in the previous secon.

I just opened a console applicaon named DotNetConsole. The snapshot below shows the

inial screen which appears when a console project is created:


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Figure 3-17: Inial window in Visual C# 2010 for a console applicaon

Right click on References and choose Add Reference from the menu which appears. The

following snapshot shows this:

Figure 3-18: Adding MATLAB generated dll-le in C# project


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By clicking the Add Reference opon, Add Reference window appears. Select the

Browse tab on this window then browse distrib folder within the locaon where MATLAB

created project is located to select the dll-le and then click OK nally to add the selected

dll-le into the C# project. In my case I will choose DotNetProject.dll le which I created in

MATLAB. Following snapshots shows this:

Figure 3-19: Add Reference window for browsing and selecng dll-le need to be added

to a C# project


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When OK is clicked on the Add Reference window shown above then dll le is added to

the references of the project which can be seen below the References label within the

Soluon Explorer window in C# project as shown in the below snapshot:

Figure 3-20: MATLAB generated dll-le visible below References label in C# project


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In order to use MATLAB funcons which input data from C# and aer processing output the

result to C# require adding another dll-le called MWArray.dll which allows using MATLAB

data types variables in C# just as nave data types in presence of this dll. This dll-le is located

in the installaon folder of MATLAB. The version of MATLAB whos MWArray.dll is added

must be the same as the MATLAB with which m-le was converted to a dll-le otherwise thiswill generate error. In case that you dont have MATLAB installed then you need to install MCR

(MATLAB Compiler Runme) and MWArray.dll can be found then in installaon folder of

MCR. The version of MCR must also correspond to the version of MATLAB with which m-le

was converted to a dll-le. The informaon about the version of MCR which is needed can be

found along with other les in the readme.txt le in the folder. The following snapshot

shows the readme.txt le along with MATLAB created dll-les:

Figure 3-21: readme.txt in MATLAB built project which tells requirement for using

MATLAB generated dll-les


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Now use the same procedure to add MWArray.dll as described above for

DotNetProject.dll and then it can also be seen in the Soluon Explorer window below

References label in the C# project as shown in the following snapshot:

Figure 3-22: MWArray.dll which is key for communicaon between MATLAB and C# for

input and output data both ways


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Now aer adding the dll-les we need to add namespaces in the .cs (C# source code) le in

which we want to use MATLAB funcon. Following is the snapshot aer adding namespaces

in Program.cs:

Figure 3-23: Using namespaces in C# for MWArray.dll and MATLAB built dll-le

The upper two red marked namespaces are for MWArray.dll and the lower one red markednamespace is for my built DotNetProject.dll. Aer this the MATLAB class and funcon which

we built are ready to be used in C# program.

Now I will dene variables of type MWNumericArray which is a subclass of abstract class

MWArray, assign them user entered values, create an object of DotNetClass and will call its

funcon stability with input parameters of type MWNumericArray just as calling a nave

method of a class in C#. I will not go in much depth of C# classes, objects and methods because

very good informaon is available about this on internet. Following snapshot shows the way

of dening variables of type MWNumericArray, assigning them value, creaon of an object

test of class DotNetClass which we created in MATLAB and then calling the stability

method of this class.


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Figure 3-24: Dening variables of MATLAB supported data type, creaon of an object of

MATLAB generated class and using its funcon as method in C#

The upper marked block shows way of dening variables of type MWNumericArray, middle

marked block shows assigning values to these variables and the lower block shows creaon

of an object of class DotNetClass and calling the MATLAB le stability.m as a method of

DotNetClass.

MATLAB - C# Interfacing

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