Cannot cast char array to pointer

Elements C#
1

Hi, this piece of code doesn’t compile with Hydrogene but with csc:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace Test
{
	[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
	unsafe struct IMAGE_IMPORT_BY_NAME
	{
		[FieldOffset(0)]
		public ushort Hint;
		[FieldOffset(2)]
		public fixed char Name[1];
	}

	class Test
	{
		void TestFunc()
		{
			unsafe
			{
				char* szImportName;
				IMAGE_IMPORT_BY_NAME* pIBN = (IMAGE_IMPORT_BY_NAME*)null;
				szImportName = (char*)pIBN->Name; // RO: Cannot cast from "Char[0..0]" to "Char*"
			}
		}
	}
}
2

Hmm. The error seems legit to me, for .NET; a char array is NOT a pointer to a Char.

you’d need use * to get the address of the array, to achieve what you want, but that also doesnt seem to be supported:

szImportName = (char*)(*(pIBN->Name)); // E118 Cannot use pointer dereferencing on "Char[0..0]"
4

Correction:

szImportName = (char*)(&(pIBN->Name));

is the right syntax for Address of, ofc.

5

Thank you, that works.
Unfortunately this is incompatible with csc, which complains about this statement.

6

Which is weird, be cause the above code is wrong, and at the very least (even if it compiles) should not do what you think it does…

1 Like