Q: Must one use special LabVIEW types (e.g. float64) for DLLs in LabWINDOWS/CVI?

[Frenk]

Hello,

I have recently started compiling C code using LabWindows/CVI, and have successfully called a simple DLL function from within LabVIEW.


I have a question about the types defined in LabVIEW's extcode.h file:


These are defined to explicitly quantify the number of bits used for each data type (e.g. float64 instead of float) in order to eliminate ambiguity across compilers.


When I am using LabWindows/CVI to compile, do I need to use the LabView numeric types defined in LabView's extcode.h, or can I use the standard C types (int, float, etc.)?


Is there a distinction between having to use these special types for CIN versus shared library calls in LabVIEW?


Thanks
in advance,
Frenk

[Brian_Powell]

You do not have to use the defines in extcode.h, but you certainly can if you want to.

The float64 is equivalent to CVI's "double", and the float32 is equivalent to CVI's "float".

These correspond to the double- and single-precision types in the IEEE Standard for Floating Point Arithmetic, IEEE-754.

I hope this helps.

Brian