80

I am playing around with F# and C#, and would like to call F# code from C#.

I managed to get it to work the other way around in Visual Studio by having two projects in the same solution, and adding a reference of the C# code to the F# project. After doing this, I could call C# code and even step through it while debugging.

What I am trying to do is F# code FROM C# instead of C# code from F#. I added a reference to the F# project to the C# project, but it isn't working the way it did before. I would like to know if this is possible without doing it manually.

ZeroKelvin
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    Unless you have specific issues, adding a reference to an F# project from a C# one today "just works". There's nothing extraordinary here, as that's one of the fundamental promise or benefit of .NET architecture (Language agnostic, MSIL etc.). In fact, the opposite would be weird. What more do you expect for this bounty? – Simon Mourier Mar 09 '18 at 07:19

4 Answers4

57

Below is a working example of calling F# from C#.

As you encountered, I was not able to add a reference by selecting from the "Add Reference ... Projects" tab. Instead I did have to do it manually, by browsing to the F# assembly in the "Add Reference ... Browse" tab.

------ F# MODULE -----

// First implement a foldl function, with the signature (a->b->a) -> a -> [b] -> a
// Now use your foldl function to implement a map function, with the signature (a->b) -> [a] -> [b]
// Finally use your map function to convert an array of strings to upper case
//
// Test cases are in TestFoldMapUCase.cs
//
// Note: F# provides standard implementations of the fold and map operations, but the 
// exercise here is to build them up from primitive elements...

module FoldMapUCase.Zumbro
#light


let AlwaysTwo =
   2

let rec foldl fn seed vals = 
   match vals with
   | head :: tail -> foldl fn (fn seed head) tail
   | _ -> seed


let map fn vals =
   let gn lst x =
      fn( x ) :: lst
   List.rev (foldl gn [] vals)


let ucase vals =
   map String.uppercase vals

----- C# UNIT TESTS FOR THE MODULE -----

// Test cases for FoldMapUCase.fs
//
// For this example, I have written my NUnit test cases in C#.  This requires constructing some F#
// types in order to invoke the F# functions under test.


using System;
using Microsoft.FSharp.Core;
using Microsoft.FSharp.Collections;
using NUnit.Framework;

namespace FoldMapUCase
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class TestFoldMapUCase
    {
        public TestFoldMapUCase()
        {            
        }

        [Test]
        public void CheckAlwaysTwo()
        {
            // simple example to show how to access F# function from C#
            int n = Zumbro.AlwaysTwo;
            Assert.AreEqual(2, n);
        }

        class Helper<T>
        {
            public static List<T> mkList(params T[] ar)
            {
                List<T> foo = List<T>.Nil;
                for (int n = ar.Length - 1; n >= 0; n--)
                    foo = List<T>.Cons(ar[n], foo);
                return foo;
            }
        }


        [Test]
        public void foldl1()
        {
            int seed = 64;
            List<int> values = Helper<int>.mkList( 4, 2, 4 );
            FastFunc<int, FastFunc<int,int>> fn =
                FuncConvert.ToFastFunc( (Converter<int,int,int>) delegate( int a, int b ) { return a/b; } );

            int result = Zumbro.foldl<int, int>( fn, seed, values);
            Assert.AreEqual(2, result);
        }

        [Test]
        public void foldl0()
        {
            string seed = "hi mom";
            List<string> values = Helper<string>.mkList();
            FastFunc<string, FastFunc<string, string>> fn =
                FuncConvert.ToFastFunc((Converter<string, string, string>)delegate(string a, string b) { throw new Exception("should never be invoked"); });

            string result = Zumbro.foldl<string, string>(fn, seed, values);
            Assert.AreEqual(seed, result);
        }

        [Test]
        public void map()
        {
            FastFunc<int, int> fn =
                FuncConvert.ToFastFunc((Converter<int, int>)delegate(int a) { return a*a; });

            List<int> vals = Helper<int>.mkList(1, 2, 3);
            List<int> res = Zumbro.map<int, int>(fn, vals);

            Assert.AreEqual(res.Length, 3);
            Assert.AreEqual(1, res.Head);
            Assert.AreEqual(4, res.Tail.Head);
            Assert.AreEqual(9, res.Tail.Tail.Head);
        }

        [Test]
        public void ucase()
        {
            List<string> vals = Helper<string>.mkList("arnold", "BOB", "crAIg");
            List<string> exp = Helper<string>.mkList( "ARNOLD", "BOB", "CRAIG" );
            List<string> res = Zumbro.ucase(vals);
            Assert.AreEqual(exp.Length, res.Length);
            Assert.AreEqual(exp.Head, res.Head);
            Assert.AreEqual(exp.Tail.Head, res.Tail.Head);
            Assert.AreEqual(exp.Tail.Tail.Head, res.Tail.Tail.Head);
        }

    }
}
Orkhan Alikhanov
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Eric
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    Thank you. "I did have to do it manually, by browsing to the F# assembly in the 'Add Reference ... Browse' tab." is what worked for me. – ZeroKelvin Jan 26 '09 at 00:52
27

It should 'just work', though you might have to build the F# project before a project-to-project reference from C# works (I forget).

A common source of issues is namespaces/modules. If your F# code does not start with a namespace declaration, it gets put in a module with the same name as the filename, so that e.g. from C# your type might appear as "Program.Foo" rather than just "Foo" (if Foo is an F# type defined in Program.fs).

Brian
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6

From this link they seem to have a number of possible solutions, but the one that seemed the simplest was a comment:

F# Code:

type FCallback = delegate of int*int -> int;;
type FCallback =
  delegate of int * int -> int

let f3 (f:FCallback) a b = f.Invoke(a,b);;
val f3 : FCallback -> int -> int -> int

C# Code:

int a = Module1.f3(Module1.f2, 10, 20); // method gets converted to the delegate automatically in C#
Bhargav Rao
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Chris Bunch
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  • I get an error on the val line : val f3 : FCallback -> int -> int -> int "Error 1 Unexpected keyword 'val' in definition. Expected incomplete structured construct at or before this point or other token." – Tom Stickel Nov 14 '11 at 20:50
4

// Test.fs :

module meGlobal

type meList() = 
    member this.quicksort = function
        | [] -> []  //  if list is empty return list
        | first::rest -> 
            let smaller,larger = List.partition((>=) first) rest
        List.concat[this.quicksort smaller; [first]; this.quicksort larger]

// Test.cs :

List<int> A = new List<int> { 13, 23, 7, 2 };
meGlobal.meList S = new meGlobal.meList();

var cquicksort = Microsoft.FSharp.Core.FSharpFunc<FSharpList<IComparable>,     FSharpList<IComparable>>.ToConverter(S.quicksort);

FSharpList<IComparable> FI = ListModule.OfSeq(A.Cast<IComparable>());
var R = cquicksort(FI);
merrais
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